Targeting refrigerators in France is not the only incident; the Netherlands is also a victim of cyberattacks

The cyberattack targeting the cooling systems of major French stores has been making headlines in recent days, and despite the significant damage caused by the attack, it is not the only one of its kind recently, which portends a wave of cyberattacks targeting building systems and infrastructure.

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Although no link has been established between the two incidents, they highlight a bottleneck that could cause a prolonged crisis threatening food supply and storage chains.

Cyberattack disrupts daily life

Kevin Tellier, a cybersecurity engineer at the French company Synactive, described the attack as a "large-scale cyberattack that directly impacts people's daily lives" while speaking to Anadolu Agency, explaining that it is one of the first cyberattacks to have such a far-reaching impact.

Tellier points out that the attack was not at all sophisticated enough for a 15-year-old boy to have carried it out, but the impact of the attack was so far-reaching as to disrupt daily life.

He added that food supply chains and retail operations contribute directly to the resilience of civilians, which means that any disruptions in these areas could have consequences that extend beyond the affected businesses.

A vulnerability overlooked by cybersecurity

The Ars Technica report indicates that the breach targeted controllers responsible for managing temperatures in the stores' refrigeration and alarm units.

The attack targeted controllers manufactured by three different companies and relied upon by French stores through a software vulnerability. This vulnerability was known to the companies, who had warned the stores about it and demanded that they upgrade their equipment and update their systems.

The Anadolu report describes the vulnerabilities in operational technology as the point that cybersecurity and technology experts in general overlook, because operational technology equipment is designed to operate for long periods without updating, which makes it vulnerable to attacks and exploitation of vulnerabilities.