Major failure in French supermarkets due to cyberattack

A large-scale cyberattack on supermarket refrigeration systems occurred in France, forcing several retail chains to temporarily restrict sales of some products and dispose of goods that had been stored in violation of temperature conditions.

Representatives of French retailers and local media reported this on October 12.

Coopérative U president Dominique Schelcher confirmed that since the night the chain has been subjected to a cyberattack affecting cold production installations in a number of stores. According to him, company teams together with refrigeration specialists are working to restore systems as quickly as possible.

Schelcher called the attack unprecedented and extremely serious, stressing that it involves equipment that is critically important for storing fresh products and ensuring food supply.

Intermarché also reported problems. On the pages of individual stores of the chain, a notice appeared that due to a "computer break-in", customers temporarily cannot be offered frozen products.

According to French media, the incident affected several hundred stores. In particular, it involves about 150–200 Intermarché outlets and nearly 100 Coopérative U stores. Some supermarkets were forced to dispose of fresh and frozen goods due to breaking of the cold chain.

At the moment, companies are focused on restoring equipment operation and assessing damage. The exact scale of financial losses has not yet been disclosed.

This incident drew attention because the hackers' target was not websites, payment infrastructure or customer services, but the physical food storage systems. Thus, the cyberattack directly affected the operational work of stores and their inventory.

French media note that the attack could become one of the most notable examples of interference in systems that control real trading equipment. The investigation into the circumstances of the incident continues.

Based on: LinkedIn of Dominique Schelcher, message from one of the Intermarché stores, Le Parisien.