Nov 9, 2026 - Foods
Hacked refrigerated display cases: Sometimes a simple fix is all it takes.
The food retail sector (LEH) is shaken. Centralized refrigeration controls in several European countries were hacked. In some cases they even switched to automatic defrost, so that tons of refrigerated goods had to be disposed of. According to reports, devices from the company Danfoss were often affected. In many cases factory settings had not been changed at all and, for example, no new passwords had been set. Human complacency is, as is well known, boundless.
Karlsruhe IT expert Christoph Fischer also advises not to necessarily outsource all processes to the Internet. This inevitably increases the risk of manipulation.
Sources/Notes:
- https://www.proplanta.de/agrar-nachrichten/verbraucher/cyberangriffe-auf-kuehlanlagen-verhindern-wie-geht-das.
- https://www.bfr.bund.de/projekt/zukunftsszenarien-fuer-den-verbraucherschutz-auf-basis-von-qualitaets-und-sicherheitsinformationen-von-lebensmitteln-innovativen-messmethoden-und-kuenstlicher-intelligenz/