DOMINANT ANGLE
Islamabad takes from this attack the technical flaw: obsolete cooling units running outdated firmware, with Danfoss urging its customers to update their systems.
Dominant angle identified — does not reflect unanimity of this country’s media
KEY POINTS
- 01
According to Reuters as carried by ARY News, refrigerators in hundreds of French supermarkets were heated to as much as 50 °C, causing fires and food losses; Carrefour counts 80 stores affected and Intermarché around 150, for six hours.
- 02
Daily Times reports that the ANSSI identified a vulnerability tied to Danfoss software, whose affected units were running outdated firmware.
- 03
Felix Aime, an analyst at Sekoia, says Spain, Portugal, Poland, Germany and Belgium were also affected; the Paris prosecutor's office has opened an investigation.
ANALYSIS
Islamabad, October 13, 2026. Pakistani media treat the affair as a textbook case of connected-device vulnerability. ARY News carries the Reuters dispatch: hackers drove up the temperature of refrigerators and freezers in hundreds of French supermarkets to as much as 50 °C (122 °F) overnight, causing fires and the loss of food. The Paris prosecutor's office described on Monday a "large-scale" attack affecting "connected refrigerators" at several major chains, and Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has tasked the ANSSI with investigating, according to a member of his office.
The figures come from the retailers. Carrefour says 80 of its supermarkets were hit; Monoprix, which operates about 490 stores in France, says 5% of its stores were affected. Les Mousquetaires, owner of Intermarché, reports around 150 stores whose fridges were heated for six hours; a spokesperson says all the affected products were thrown away to rule out any health risk. Reuters relays the account of a Paris resident, Geert de Clercq, who saw employees at an Intermarché emptying carts of thawed frozen goods into a skip, melted ice running onto the road. The CEO of Coopérative U, Dominique Schelcher, confirms that his group was also targeted.
Daily Times stresses the technical and European dimension. According to that account, the ANSSI identified a vulnerability in software supplied by Denmark's Danfoss, which says the affected units were running outdated firmware and urges its customers to update their systems. The disruption reportedly went beyond refrigeration: electronic shelf labels and delivery systems also experienced problems. In the Netherlands, Ahold Delhaize's chains (Albert Heijn, Etos, Gall & Gall) reported a separate security incident, and Delhaize stores in Belgium were disrupted, with no confirmation from the authorities of a link.
Reuters also quotes Felix Aime, an analyst at Sekoia, who says Spain, Portugal, Poland, Germany and Belgium were also affected. Paris is coordinating with its European counterparts and assessing whether other French companies are exposed. Neither of the two texts identifies the perpetrators or mentions any claim of responsibility or ransom demand.
