Major French supermarket chains said they were hit by a cyberattack that caused their refrigerators to shoot up in temperature in hundreds of stores, forcing spoiled food to be thrown away and raising concerns about food security.
One thing I find confusing in these stories is that it’s multiple chains, meaning their entire collection of these refrigerators are exposed to access en masse.
The manufacturers are saying its because the supermarkets didn’t update the firmware on these models - probably true. However on top of that is a more broad issue: Why are such systems accessible in the first place? Are they internet facing (which is mad) or is there a flaw in the supermarkets private networks or is there a flaw in the access these refrigerators need out of the network?
So often it’s very basic network security that massively contributes to the problem. Firmware absolutely should be kept up to date, but these things can be kept secure without updates by just not being accessible. That would ideally be the local store only and a physical closed network, or if running a chain then that means keeping the chains network properly secure. It’s always multiple layers of mistakes and bad decision that leads to this kind of chaos.
One thing I find confusing in these stories is that it’s multiple chains, meaning their entire collection of these refrigerators are exposed to access en masse.
The manufacturers are saying its because the supermarkets didn’t update the firmware on these models - probably true. However on top of that is a more broad issue: Why are such systems accessible in the first place? Are they internet facing (which is mad) or is there a flaw in the supermarkets private networks or is there a flaw in the access these refrigerators need out of the network?
So often it’s very basic network security that massively contributes to the problem. Firmware absolutely should be kept up to date, but these things can be kept secure without updates by just not being accessible. That would ideally be the local store only and a physical closed network, or if running a chain then that means keeping the chains network properly secure. It’s always multiple layers of mistakes and bad decision that leads to this kind of chaos.