Protection guide for your refrigeration supervisory system
In six hours, the cold room became an oven.
On October 12, attackers took control of the refrigeration in hundreds of French supermarkets, from chains such as Carrefour, Monoprix, Intermarché and Coopérative U. The result: entire inventories thrown away and stores closed for cleaning and restocking.
NORMAL
internal temperature in refrigeration equipment
of refrigeration units heating instead of cooling
in losses at just two stores in Alsace
supervisory system interfaces still visible on the internet, according to Reuters
Sources: IT Forum and Mobile Time.
Too simple to ignore.
The supervisory system is the small computer that centralizes cold rooms, display cases and racks. It is where technicians adjust temperatures, schedule defrost cycles and see alarms. When that screen is open to the internet, the door is unlocked.
Exposed screen
The supervisory system is put on the internet to make remote maintenance easier.
Found
Specialized search engines locate these screens within minutes.
Breached
Old equipment, no updates or a weak password. The attacker gets in.
Defrost on
A normal function is left running for hours. Cold turns to heat and the inventory ends up in the trash.
in estimated losses if an attack like the one in France hit every supermarket in the state of São Paulo.
NEO estimate published by Mobile Time.
- Brazilian regulations do not classify the food sector as critical infrastructure. Protection is up to each chain.
- In France, one of the affected chains warned that some insurance policies may not cover this type of incident.
- The same pattern threatens HVAC, generators, water pumps and medicine cold rooms.
Would your chain pass this test?
Answer honestly. No one is watching.
Are your stores' supervisory systems off the public internet?
Do you know the model and firmware version of each supervisory system?
Is there a configuration backup stored outside the equipment and the store?
Has that backup actually been restored in a test?
Does each store have a defined owner and review schedule?
Does your team know what to do in the first minutes of an incident?
Answer all 6 questions to see your result.
How to protect your refrigeration.
Security and contingency planning for supervisory systems: how to secure access, update your equipment and safely recover operations.
Free PDFThe alert and the priority
The first step to close the way in.
Is your equipment on the list?
Danfoss and Copeland/Dixell: how to check model and version, and when to update or replace.
Lock down access without going blind
How to secure the connection and keep readings and alarms coming in.
Backups that actually work
What to store, where to store it and how to prove that restoring works.
Routine and ownership
The right review frequency and who is responsible for what at each store.
When the worst happens
The first steps, the rebuild and the criteria for resuming operations.
Your guide is ready.
Ready for the next step? Our specialists will review your chain's situation with you.
Real-world operating scale.
Who the market turned to on the case.
Cyberattack drives up temperatures in 700 supermarkets in France
Read article →
Expert estimates a refrigeration attack would cause losses of up to R$ 3.8 billion in São Paulo
Read article →
Cyberattack on 700 supermarkets in France causes losses in the millions
Read article →Monitoring is not the same as protecting.
NEO is the Asset Management System for food retail: it turns data into decisions and decisions into results, before the problem reaches the shelf.
Talk to our specialists.
Get answers about the security of your supervisory system and see how NEO protects your chain's operations.