U.S. federal agencies are warning that hackers are actively compromising internet-connected refrigeration and cold chain monitoring systems, with attacks reported at supermarkets worldwide, U.S. military bases and at least one blood bank. CISA, the FBI and several other federal departments issued the joint warning Thursday, saying the intrusions reach critical infrastructure in the food, agriculture, transportation and medicine-shipping sectors.
According to the agencies, attackers who successfully exploit these systems could alter temperature settings and cause physical consequences, including fire hazards, lost inventory and changes to the equipment's service life. A separate fact sheet from the departments said hackers may try to push units into continuous heating and defrost cycles, a tactic that could destroy stock on a large scale and create equipment dangers.
The alert follows waves of attacks on industrial refrigeration units in the United Kingdom and Europe in recent weeks. In two separate campaigns, intruders raised the temperature on freezers and chilling units in at least a dozen countries, ruining defrosted food and destroying produce. Among the affected systems were remote-controlled refrigeration units made by Danish company Danfoss, which had stopped supplying security updates to customers' freezers.
In France, hackers targeted a blood bank and caused its refrigerated units to raise temperatures in cold storage holding donated blood supplies, but the attack was halted before the blood stores were compromised. The U.S. Department of Defense is investigating a series of hacks against freezers operated by the military, according to Reuters. The hacks were first reported by Signal and Silence.
No group or government has been formally attributed the attacks by the U.S., though security researchers have broadly blamed Iran, and U.S. officials reportedly suspect Iran is the likely culprit as well.
CISA, the FBI and the Departments of Agriculture, Health and Human Services and Transportation advised affected industries to take remote control systems off the internet, change and strengthen passwords, apply patches where available and retire equipment vendors no longer support. Chris Butera, CISA's acting cybersecurity chief, said every organization that relies on refrigeration and monitoring systems should assume it could be a target.
More cybersecurity news from TechManNews.
