Hundreds of grocery stores across France were hit by a cyberattack overnight between Sunday and Monday that pushed up the temperature inside their freezers, Swedish public broadcaster SVT Nyheter reports.
The attackers reached the freezers at hundreds of stores through digital means and in several cases raised the temperature by as much as 50 degrees, according to the French outlet BFM TV, as cited in the reporting.
Several large food retail chains were affected, among them Intermarché, Coopérative U and Leclerc.
Why it matters
The incident stands out because the target was not payment systems, customer databases or internal email, but equipment whose entire job is to keep food cold enough to stay safe. A freezer that warms up does not simply inconvenience a shopper; it puts perishable goods on a clock.
Dominique Schelcher, the chief executive of Coopérative U, described the attack in stark terms on X, saying that striking equipment essential to keeping food fresh for the French public is extremely serious and something the company has never seen before. He called it unacceptable.
His comment points to a broader concern that has been building around connected industrial and commercial equipment. Devices that were once isolated — a refrigeration unit in a stockroom, a thermostat, a compressor — are now frequently online so that they can be monitored and adjusted remotely. That convenience is also an entry point.
What is known about the attack
According to the reporting, the hackers gained access to freezers at hundreds of stores remotely. In multiple cases they raised the temperature by up to 50 degrees, BFM TV reported.
The affected chains are among the largest in French food retail. Intermarché, Coopérative U and Leclerc all operate extensive store networks, meaning the disruption touched a wide geographic spread rather than a single region or a single company.
The reporting does not specify how the attackers got in, whether a ransom was demanded, or who might be responsible. It also does not state how long the freezers were running warm, how much food had to be discarded, or whether any stores were forced to close. Those details were not available in the material published so far.
SVT Nyheter notes in its own editorial guidance that in fast-moving news situations it can be difficult to confirm every fact, and that in such cases it reports what is known and what is not. That caution applies here: the confirmed elements are the timing, the method as described, the temperature change reported by BFM TV, and the chains named.
Connected cooling and the shape of the risk
The attack fits a pattern that security researchers have warned about for years, though the reporting does not draw that conclusion itself. Building systems, refrigeration and other operational equipment are often managed through remote platforms, and those platforms can be reachable from the internet if they are not properly segmented from other networks.
What makes this case notable is the physical effect. Most retail cyber incidents surface as checkout outages, loyalty account problems or leaked customer data. Here the consequence was a change in temperature inside equipment holding food — a direct, tangible outcome rather than a data breach.
The reported figure of up to 50 degrees is striking on its own. Freezers normally operate well below freezing, so a rise of that magnitude would move a unit from a deep-frozen state toward room temperature, which is precisely the condition that spoils meat, dairy, frozen vegetables and prepared meals.
Retailers in France have not, in the reporting available, described the scale of the losses or how quickly staff were able to intervene. It is also unclear whether the temperature changes were reversed remotely or required manual work at each site.
A sector under scrutiny
Food supply chains have become a recurring subject in discussions about critical infrastructure. The argument, made by regulators and industry groups in several countries, is that a disruption to refrigeration or distribution does not stay contained to one company — it reaches households.
Schelcher's language reflected that framing. By describing the freezers as essential equipment for keeping food fresh for the French public, he placed the incident in the category of an attack on public-facing infrastructure rather than a private commercial matter.
The three named chains have not, according to the reporting, issued a joint statement. Coopérative U's response came through its chief executive's social media account.
For shoppers, the immediate question is what happened to the stock. For the industry, the question is how hundreds of individual store systems were reachable in a way that allowed a coordinated overnight action. Neither has been answered in the material published so far.
What to watch
Expect the affected chains to disclose how much product was lost and whether any stores restricted sales, and watch for French authorities to say whether they have opened an investigation into how the intrusion was carried out.
