Stephen Warwick Social Links Navigation News Editor Stephen is Tom's Hardware's News Editor with almost a decade of industry experience covering technology, having worked at TechRadar, iMore, and even Apple over the years. He has covered the world of consumer tech from nearly every angle, including supply chain rumors, patents, and litigation, and more. When he's not at work, he loves reading about history and playing video games.
T3Kgamer Wild that after the first attack they didn’t update or fix any vulnerabilities. Honestly why do refrigeration units even need to be connected to the internet? Like we’ve been using basic reliable refrigeration equipment for decades, if anything it should be a local network similar to UART or CAN that isn't connected to the actual internet. Reply
Samlebon2306 "The company says switching units to a secure internet connection is the simplest solution in the meantime" Why they did not think about it when architecting the system before it goes online? Is SSL a 2026 tech? Or are VPNs a luxury? And how on earth could a freezer go up to 50 Celsius? Reply
Samlebon2306 T3Kgamer said: Wild that after the first attack they didn’t update or fix any vulnerabilities. Honestly why do refrigeration units even need to be connected to the internet? Like we’ve been using basic reliable refrigeration equipment for decades, if anything it should be a local network similar to UART or CAN that isn't connected to the actual internet. Exactly. They should not allow commands over the Internet. only allow telemetry and notifications to be sent to the cloud. In other words make the freezer read-only. Reply
warezme Can't help but shake my head. It used to be you plugged your freezer in and it would get really cold and you kept you food in there. It had a thermostat and temperature setting dial. The end. Why it would need to be connected to the internet is beyond me. Reply
Roland Of Gilead warezme said: Can't help but shake my head. It used to be you plugged your freezer in and it would get really cold and you kept you food in there. It had a thermostat and temperature setting dial. The end. Why it would need to be connected to the internet is beyond me. On a side note, I like your name! Reminds me of the heady fun days of the mid to late 90's on the scene! 🙂 Reply
Sippincider Samlebon2306 said: In other words make the freezer read-only. Exactly. I can understand remote temperature monitoring, for food safety compliance and to alert of developing refrigeration problems. But no reason any remote settings changes should be allowed. Reply
Samlebon2306 Sippincider said: Exactly. I can understand remote temperature monitoring, for food safety compliance and to alert of developing refrigeration problems. But no reason any remote settings changes should be allowed. I want to clarify that by read-only I did not mean a remote request; I meant a push notification from the freezer to the cloud. That way any attempt to access the system remotely is denied. Reply
DS426 "We've been working all night and morning to disconnect the affected units from the network" I'll give you hint: unplug the network cable. Reply
DS426 They have heaters in them as well? That seems odd to me. If they are connected to the internet, then they should be pretty easy to update. Looks like the French victims had a combination of running old, out-of-support fridge controllers and didn't apply security patches that were released a few weeks prior by their vendors. So yes, at least some of the fridge vendors had already released updates that not only fixed some vulns but also added some security hardening. Reply
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Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/cyber-security/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/cyber-security/supermarket-freezers-across-europe-struck-in-second-crippling-cyberattack-hackers-raise-temperatures-to-50-degrees-celsius-in-belgium-and-sweden-destroying-food-stocks#main
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Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.