By Hamza Faisal
Hundreds of supermarkets across France were hit by a large-scale cyberattack overnight on October 11-12, with hackers seizing control of refrigeration systems and forcing fridges and freezers into continuous defrost cycles at temperatures reaching 50 degrees Celsius.
Stores were forced to throw away entire stocks of fresh and frozen food, in what retail executives are calling an unprecedented attack on the food supply.
Intermarche, one of the worst-hit chains, said around 150 of its stores were affected, with refrigeration units heated for roughly six hours before staff realized what was happening.
By then, every fresh and frozen product had to be discarded on sanitary grounds. The Cooperative U chain confirmed just under 100 of its outlets were hit, while Carrefour Market, Monoprix and Netto locations were also targeted. French outlets put the total at between 250 and 350 stores nationwide.
Dominique Schelcher, CEO of Cooperative U, confirmed the attack on X, writing that teams were mobilized alongside refrigeration specialists to restore operations.
He described the targeting of food-preservation equipment as extremely serious and unprecedented - a line echoed by the EU's agriculture and food commissioner Christophe Hansen, who named France's largest chain E. Leclerc among the apparent victims, though the chain has not confirmed it.
