The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has warned that vulnerable refrigeration technology was exploited in attacks affecting supermarkets and food suppliers across Europe. The warning follows reports of rising refrigerator temperatures in Ireland, Sweden, Estonia and Belgium, after earlier attacks in France destroyed fresh and frozen food worth millions of euros.
Refrigeration systems targeted across Europe
The NCSC said it was “aware of several cases where vulnerable technology was exploited in the UK” at supermarkets and food suppliers across Europe.
Dr Richard Horne, chief executive of the NCSC, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that officials had “worked all night” to alert potentially affected organisations in the UK.
He said he had alerted a “small number” of bodies and was aware of “some collisions”.
The warning came after supermarkets in countries including Ireland, Sweden, Estonia and Belgium reported rising refrigerator temperatures on Monday. The incident followed attacks targeting supermarkets and food suppliers across France in early October.
Hundreds of stores were targeted overnight in a cyberattack that destroyed fresh and frozen food estimated to be worth millions of euros.
Attackers exploited disclosed vulnerabilities
The attacks exploited vulnerabilities in some systems used to remotely control and manage refrigeration units. Cybersecurity researchers had disclosed the weaknesses several months earlier.
Mr Horne told the BBC on Tuesday that it was “still too early to say” who was behind the hack.
He said the incident demonstrated the urgent need for organisations and businesses to ensure that the technology underpinning the applications people use and rely on every day is secure and up to date.
“The technology infrastructure that we rely on as a society is not being invested in to the extent it should be,” Horne said. He noted that many companies do not extend their systems beyond their useful life, upgrade them or store them in secure compartments away from the internet.
Such practices can create vulnerabilities that many cybersecurity experts describe as low-hanging fruit for hackers and easy to exploit.
Warning over artificial intelligence and cyber threats
The UK’s cyber chief said vulnerabilities could be identified and exploited more quickly and easily through “AI in the hands of adversaries”.
“Every organization needs to look at what they rely on and invest in innovation,” he said.
“We intervene as much as we can. But at the end of the day, it’s your business. It’s your charity. It’s your life. You have to make choices and choose wisely.”
Source: www.bbc.co.uk