EXPLORINEER
en

KR — 전자신문

Government Warns of Refrigeration Equipment Hacking, Urges Private Sector Security Checks

Security1 min read

South Korea's government has warned businesses that hackers are attacking refrigerators and freezers in stores and cold storage. It has asked private companies to check their security now.

What happened

Around the world, hackers have caused food to spoil by taking control of cold-storage equipment. In Korea, the Ministry of Science and ICT shared overseas cases with private companies and industry groups. It also asked them to run security checks. The attacks target remote control devices that can change a machine's temperature and run time from outside the store or warehouse.

Key facts

  • In France, an attacker changed the defrost time from 1 hour to 8 hours, so temperature alarms rang late.
  • In some large supermarkets, fridge temperatures rose as high as 50 degrees Celsius.
  • Supermarkets in Sweden and Belgium, and three plasma storage sites of the French blood service, also reported damage this month.
  • In the United States, food spoiled in a freezer at a military base store, and the Department of Defense is checking whether hacking was the cause.
  • The Ministry says no damage cases have been reported in Korea so far.

How the attacks work

Cooling units often freeze up with frost. A 'defrost' function melts that ice on a set schedule. Attackers abused this function to stop cooling from being noticed. Experts also say that sealed-off devices are less safe when their factory passwords are left unchanged.

Why it matters

Fresh food can be thrown away even when there is plenty of it, if it is not kept at the right temperature during storage and shipping. If one cold warehouse that supplies many stores is hit, food supply in a whole region could be disrupted. This makes the attacks a food security issue, not just a computer problem.

What to watch

  • Whether companies change factory passwords and update device firmware, which is the control software inside equipment.
  • Whether remote access is limited to protected networks such as a virtual private network (VPN).
  • What the U.S. Department of Defense finds about the military base freezer failure.

Glossary

Ministry of Science and ICT
South Korea's government office that handles science, technology, and information and communication policy.

Same story, different eyes

Ad

Add 150 words. Learn 10 a day.

Dicter word books send only the words you learn to your review notes.

More in this topic

Securityheise online

Supermarket Cooling Systems: German Intelligence Agencies Investigate Sabotage Attacks

Following massive cyberattacks on supermarket cooling systems, German intelligence services have joined police investigations. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) said the incidents are the subject of current intelligence inquiries, and the joint hybrid threats center GAZ Hybrid is also looking into the matter. Attackers manipulated temperature controls in refrigerators and freezers, with incidents reported in Germany and several other European countries.

Securityheise online

Brenner Base Tunnel: Cyberattack on Construction Company

The project company building the Brenner Base Tunnel between Austria and Italy, BBT SE, was the target of a cyberattack in mid-October. Unknown attackers accessed parts of data that could be reached from the internet, but BBT said no risks to construction or future operation arose and high-security data was not affected. Italian authorities are leading the investigation, as BBT is based in Bolzano.

SecurityThe Register

NHS breach helpline left staff carrying a 'significant emotional burden'

A review has found that NHS staff drafted into a helpline after colleagues' health data was exposed online faced distressed callers, safeguarding decisions, and a "serious emotional impact." The helpline was meant to run for two weeks in December 2025 but was stood down after 11 weeks, in February 2026. The breach at Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust affected 8,003 people and stemmed from a spreadsheet published in February 2023 that retained sickness absence records accessible through its pivot tables.

SecurityZDNet Korea

"I Thought It Was a Robot Malfunction, but It Was a Hack": Physical AI Faces Growing Security Threats

As AI expands into robots and self-driving cars, cyberattacks that subtly distort AI perception can be hard to tell apart from normal environmental adaptation, potentially causing injuries or equipment accidents. Gartner's report says traditional network-centric security is not enough, recommending physical safety mechanisms independent of AI models, separation of security inspections from real-time control paths, and independent monitoring systems.