How hackers taking control of hundreds of refrigerators in supermarkets across France may have 'proved' Europe's fears of China deactivating hundreds of its buses right on the roads 'true'

A cyberattack that hijacked commercial refrigeration units across hundreds of French supermarkets has offered a real-world demonstration of the dangers lurking in connected infrastructure. For European officials, the incident does more than spotlight digital vulnerabilities in the food supply – it provides a warning and fuel to growing anxieties across the region that internet-linked transit systems, including hundreds of public buses built by Chinese manufacturers, could be remotely immobilised right on the roads during a crisis.The French refrigerator attackThe Paris prosecutor’s office launched an investigation this week following an overnight cyberattack targeting cooling systems across multiple French grocery chains. Attackers breached central management panels, overriding controls to force refrigeration and freezer units into non-stop defrost cycles at 50°C (122°F). This resulted in fires, melted equipment and dumpsters full of spoiled food, with French retail group Les Mousquetaires (operator of Intermarché and Netto) reporting losses reaching millions of euros.France’s National Cybersecurity Agency (ANSSI) confirmed the attack targeted Danfoss AK-SC and AK-SM series controllers. Danfoss acknowledged the breach, stating the affected units ran “outdated firmware” and noting that it “long advised customers to keep supported systems updated with the latest firmware and to migrate legacy systems to current-generation solutions.”Echoing Europe’s nightmare over Chinese connected busesThe supermarket breach underscores a core vulnerability: once a piece of infrastructure is connected online for diagnostics, anyone with system-level access – whether a malicious hacker or the manufacturer itself – can override its physical operations.That exact mechanism was at the heart of the panic in Scandinavia, where transport operators in Denmark and Norway, last year, started probing Chinese-built electric buses over fears they could be remotely weaponized or shut down.Scrutiny centered on Yutong, the Zhengzhou-based company that ranks as the world’s largest bus maker by sales volume. Danish transport operator Movia, which runs 262 Yutong buses across Copenhagen and eastern Denmark, warned that over-the-air (OTA) functionality creates severe exposure.“Because these buses can receive updates and diagnostic tests 'over the air,' they can be stopped remotely, either by the manufacturer or by a hacker,” Movia COO Jeppe Gaard told NBC News.Norwegian transit agency Ruter, which oversees half of Norway’s public transport, conducted controlled tests “inside a mountain” comparing Yutong vehicles against Dutch-made VDL models. While Dutch buses lacked automated OTA functions, Yutong maintained “direct digital access to each individual bus,” leading Ruter to conclude that the fleet could, in theory, be rendered completely inoperable by the manufacturer.In response, Yutong stressed that it “strictly complies with the applicable laws, regulations, and industry standards,” noting that its European Union operational data is encrypted and housed in an Amazon Web Services facility in Frankfurt, Germany.You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.