America’s food supply under threat as FBI warns of new cyberattacks that could hit
US grocery stores are facing a major threat from a high-tech adversary that could wipe food supplies and send prices skyrocketing for holiday shoppers.
The FBI and other US agencies have issued an urgent warning to American businesses that hackers have begun targeting freezers, refrigerators and cold storage units at food stores and other facilities where perishables are kept worldwide.
The attacks already destroyed millions of dollars in frozen and refrigerated products at supermarkets in France, Sweden, Belgium, Luxembourg and Estonia in October.
Cyberattacks have raised the temperatures in these freezer units to 122 degrees Fahrenheit, spoiling everything inside, and US authorities fear the US will be next.
The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) warned: ‘The actors may exploit vulnerabilities or weaknesses in unpatched or internet-accessible controllers to remotely alter settings and force units into continuous heating and defrost cycles.’
The Pentagon’s Cyber Command has already been investigating similar acts of sabotage in August at US military bases in Arizona, California, Mississippi, Rhode Island and Wyoming.
US stores have been urged to take their temperature controls off the public internet, update the software in all of their cooling units and immediately limit access to who is able to change these temperatures.
On Monday, French officials claimed that Iran was behind the cyberattacks, saying that the country’s Revolutionary Guard has been carrying out sophisticated hacks for months as the war with the US drags on.
Millions in spoiled food has had to be discarded after hackers sabotaged the temperature controls in freezers at hundreds of European supermarkets
Grocery stores in France, Sweden, Belgium, Luxembourg and Estonia have been affected. French officials have blamed Iran for the cyberattacks
Authorities believe grocery stores, food retailers, cold storage warehouses, food and agriculture operations all use cooling devices that could be affected.
Healthcare facilities which refrigerate medicine, blood and vaccines, refrigerated shipping companies, chemical sector facilities and military kitchens could also be targeted.
The FBI wrote on X: ‘In at least one recent incident, attackers targeted refrigeration components at three foreign blood service facilities.’
The urgent FBI warning came in a major joint statement on November 5 from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the Department of Health and Human Services, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the Department of Transportation.
The agencies believe the suspected-Iranian attacks could soon make their way from Europe to the US, causing widespread problems for business and consumers if American supermarkets are shut down.
They warned that a successful hack on the grocery stores nationwide would lead to a domino effect on the public, starting with potentially breaking the freezer units and refrigerators and costing businesses millions to replace or repair them.
The FBI notice on November 5 also warned that hacking into the temperature controls may also start a fire at these locations, destroying even more goods and endangering lives.
Health officials added that customers may also get sick from eating anything that was not stored at the proper temperature, opening them up to bacterial infections or food poisoning.
Cyber attackers hacked hundreds of supermarkets across France and defrosted their freezers last month
Grocery stores have had to dispose of millions of dollars worth of food which spoiled after freezer temperatures were set to 122 degrees Fahrenheit by hackers
The major issue, which has already been exploited in Europe, is that many commercial refrigeration and cold monitoring systems use electronic temperature controllers connected to the internet.
This allows the technicians in charge to remotely monitor, log in and make changes without actually visiting each supermarket in the chain.
However, this has left hundreds of stores vulnerable as hackers bypass outdated software and malware protections and start shutting off the cooling settings.
The IC3 alert urged stores and facilities which need to keep items frozen or refrigerated to keep the control panels completely off the public internet.
If someone still needs to check them regularly remotely, they were advised to put a strong firewall in front of them and keep that software updated at all times.
Authorities added that every factory or default password securing these units should be immediately changed to make it harder for hackers to breach network-connected devices.