And finally, the sight of desperate supermarket workers shovelling armfuls of spoiled food into black bin bags.
asserted
workers → shovel → bags
On Sunday October 11, French supermarkets were hit by an unprecedented cyber attack on refrigeration units across 700 stores.
asserted
supermarkets → hit → stores
In the worst-affected shops, freezer temperatures reached 80C, equivalent to a typical sauna, and small fires broke out as plastic and cardboard packaging ignited.
asserted
packaging → affect → sauna
Supermarket behemoth Cooperative U was among the worst hit, with about 5 per cent of its 2,000 stores affected.
asserted
cent → hit → stores
Other chains caught up in the attack included Carrefour, Intermarche, Monoprix and Netto.
asserted
chains → catch → Carrefour
Food worth hundreds of millions of euros had to be discarded.
asserted
Food → have → euros
The attack made global headlines, but it was only the beginning.
asserted
it → make → headlines
For, just three weeks later, on Monday, a second cyber attack targeted refrigeration systems in about 100 stores across Europe, including in Sweden, Belgium, Ireland, Finland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.
asserted
attack → target → Sweden
Chilled and frozen food worth tens of millions of euros was ruined: in some cases it had been stored as low as minus 27C before the units were heated to more than 50C.
EU agriculture and food commissioner Christophe Hansen described the second attack as a ‘deliberate attempt to disrupt our food supply-chain’.
The attacks across Europe led to shortages in supermarkets and empty shelves.
asserted
attacks → chill → supermarkets
Thankfully, the attacks did not affect refrigeration at the larger processing or storage facilities used by supermarkets, meaning retail shelves can be fully restocked promptly.
asserted
shelves → affect → supermarkets
However, the glaring shortages have done nothing to assuage concerns over supply chain readiness at the same time as European governments urge their citizens to stockpile for emergencies.
asserted
governments → do → emergencies
Just last week Defence Secretary Wes Streeting told the British public to hoard enough supplies for 72 hours.
asserted
Streeting → tell → hours
Other countries have been even more draconian including Sweden whose authorities tell residents to be self-sufficient for up to a week.
asserted
authorities → include → week
Freezers are emptied, and frozen goods are loaded into shopping carts to be thrown away at ICA Kvantum in Sjobo, Sweden after a hacker raised the temperature in the freezers
asserted
hacker → empty → freezers
while supermarket shelves have for now returned to normal, it has since emerged that far from being a sophisticated hack along the lines of last week’s multi-billion-pound cryptocurrency heist believed to have been orchestrated by North Korea, the recent attacks were made possible by ‘basic security flaws’ in computer software, according to the head of the French cyber security agency ANSSI, Vincent Strubel.
uncertain
attacks → return → agency
Alarmingly, such flaws are thought to be widespread across Europe and Britain’s ‘operational technology’: everyday items used by large businesses, including fridges and fire alarms, that are connected to the internet but are not prioritised for cyber-protection.
asserted
that → think → protection
AI has made exposing such security failings infinitely easier and quicker.
asserted
exposing → make → failings
No group has claimed responsibility for the recent attacks and no ransom has been sought, which appears to rule out criminal gangs.
asserted
which → claim → gangs
That being so, could these hacks be anything other than an unprecedented act of state-sponsored ‘shadow warfare’?
uncertain
hacks → sponsor → warfare
In its annual ‘cyber security review’, published yesterday, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), part of GCHQ, warned: ‘By 2028, it is highly likely China, Russia and other nation states will routinely use AI cyber to achieve their geopolitical goals, with the UK facing an increase in scale and speed of sophisticated cyber attacks.’
asserted
UK → publish → attacks
This year alone, the NCSC has recorded at least 1,831 cyber-attacks on British companies, organisations or infrastructure, 80 of which were of ‘national significance’.
asserted
80 → record → significance
Yesterday it emerged that the UK’s meat-processing industry is in the midst of one such attack and that teams from the NCSC had worked through the night to alert affected firms to the crisis.
But how much do we really know about the recent attacks?
asserted
we → emerge → attacks
And, crucially, could this be the start of a prolonged cyber campaign against Western Europe, including Britain?
uncertain
this → include → Britain
Like so much modern technology, supermarket refrigeration units are connected to the internet so that they can be controlled and monitored remotely, often by a single technician supervising multiple stores simultaneously.
asserted
they → connect → stores
Getting access may have been easy.
uncertain
Getting → get → access
Many of these systems are believed to have been secured under ‘default credentials’: preset passwords such as ‘admin’ or ‘1234’ that are listed in instruction manuals that can be freely downloaded online.
asserted
that → believe → manuals
‘It’s a preconfigured password,’ explains Daniel Des Santos, vice president of research at cyber security firm Forescout.
asserted
Santos → ’ → Forescout
‘It’s not a matter of guessing: they’re publicly available.’
asserted
they → ’ → ?
Once inside, the hackers were able put the units into ‘defrost’ mode, rapidly increasing the temperatures.
asserted
hackers → put → temperatures
The hackers appear to have locked the supermarkets out of their own systems, with the head of one affected store in southern Sweden revealing: ‘We can’t adjust the temperatures...
asserted
We → appear → temperatures
Hot air is blowing into the freezers.
asserted
air → blow → freezers
Everything is ruined.’
asserted
Everything → ruin → ?
A customer looks at an empty refrigerator at a SuperValu supermarket in Ireland, also hit by the cyber-attack
Order was restored only once the refrigeration systems had been disconnected from the digital network and operated manually.
asserted
systems → look → network
‘People traditionally think about laptops and smartphones being connected to the internet,’ Dos Santos explains.
asserted
Santos → think → internet
‘But there are numerous other devices also connected, including refrigeration systems, door locks, fire alarms, security cameras – the list goes on.
asserted
list → be → systems
And ever since the war in Ukraine, we have noticed an increase in attacks against these sorts of devices.
asserted
we → notice → devices
It’s not difficult to see why refrigeration units were an appealing target.
asserted
units → ’ → ?
Empty supermarket shelves impact on the public directly and are a glaring sign of supply-chain vulnerability.
asserted
shelves → impact → vulnerability
But perhaps more importantly, these systems were low-hanging fruit: as explained, the security on the units was often exceptionally poor.
asserted
security → hang → units
‘This attack was enabled by very poor security design, not high-end exploitation,’ James Lyne, CEO of leading cybersecurity organisation The SANS Institute told the Daily Mail.
asserted
Lyne → enable → Mail
…and 24 more, not listed.
The Aporia
