SEVERAL French supermarket chains have been hit by a cyber-attack that appears to target refrigerated storage across multiple stores. Coopérative U, which operates Hyper U, Super U, U Express and Utile, confirmed on X that production cold‑rooms were affected from 11 October, with teams working alongside refrigeration specialists to restore operations. The incident is described as hitting essential equipment used to preserve fresh products and maintain food supply, with the impact deemed serious and unprecedented.
Reporting suggests the breach may have compromised the refrigeration software provider Danfoss, with attackers allegedly exploiting outdated versions of the vendor’s control software to remotely trigger forced defrost cycles and raise temperatures as high as 50 °C (122 °F). Early figures cited by BFMTV indicate about €270,000 worth of merchandise was lost at two stores (Intermarché and Super U) in Haguenau, Alsace, and that around 150 Intermarché stores across Groupe Mousquetaire could be affected.
Other affected networks reportedly include E. Leclerc, Carrefour and Monoprix. In related security discourse, Claroty’s Team82 highlighted historical vulnerabilities in Danfoss refrigeration controllers (eg CVE-2023-25915, CVE-2025-41450, CVE-41451, CVE-41452) and demonstrated how a compromised AK-SM 800A controller could disable cooling while falsifying temperature readings. Danfoss announced preparations to showcase the new iC7-HVACR drive with integrated cybersecurity features at Chillventa in Nuremberg. The involved organisations have been contacted for comment.