U.S. government agencies have warned that threat actors are actively targeting industrial refrigeration and cold-chain monitoring systems globally with an aim to cause service disruptions, fire hazards, and loss of inventory.
“The actors may exploit vulnerabilities or weaknesses in unpatched or internet-accessible controllers to remotely alter settings and force units into continuous heating and defrost cycles, which can cause widespread inventory loss and equipment hazards,” according to a joint advisory.
According to the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Health and Human Services (HHS), Department of Agriculture (USDA), and Department of Transportation (DOT), threat actors are likely to exploit authentication bypasses, arbitrary code injection, and weak configurations to gain access to these systems and cause the following effects –
- Change of temperature, which, in turn, could affect the service life of the system, create a fire hazard, cause inventory loss, or harm consumers who purchase products after unsafe storage.
- Loss of visibility into current temperatures due to a denial-of-service.
In response to the threat, owners and operators are being urged to use strong authentication, keep systems updated, identify any systems that are accessible from the internet, isolate operational technology (OT) devices, change default passwords, retire and replace legacy devices, remove unnecessary remote access, and secure necessary remote access.
“Industrial refrigeration and cold-chain monitoring systems protect food, medicine, and other temperature-sensitive products, making them attractive targets for malicious cyber actors,” said FBI Cyber Branch Operations Director Brett Leatherman.
“We are seeing these systems targeted across critical infrastructure sectors globally, putting inventory and equipment at risk.”
In recent weeks, threat actors have targeted hundreds of supermarkets across Europe by exploiting weaknesses in internet-accessible refrigeration controllers to raise temperatures, in some cases to as high as 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit), or force cooling units into defrost mode, spoiling food and resulting in financial losses.
Targets of these attacks ranged from major supermarket chains to small grocers and butchers in Belgium, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, and the U.K.
Among those targeted was the French Blood Establishment, which confirmed that a cybersecurity incident affecting a refrigeration equipment provider had raised temperature and defrost settings to “extremely high levels” at three facilities used to store blood plasma. It’s unclear who is behind the hacking spree.
Data from Censys shows that there are still hundreds of Danfoss StoreView instances exposed globally, with most of them located in France, although the number has dropped significantly from 3,004 to 708 between October 9 and November 5, 2026. The Copeland/Dixell XWEB exposure, likewise, has declined from 3,708 to 2,420.
The attack surface management platform described the refrigeration attacks across Europe as the latest addition to a list of other recent incidents targeting critical infrastructure, including gas station tank gauges, air raid systems, and water towers.
“North America accounts for roughly 38% of global ICS [industrial control systems] exposure,” Censys said. “Asia’s share grew from 22% in 2024 to 25% in 2026, while Europe’s fell from 36.5% to 32%. However, these shifts have not produced an overall decline.”
“While exposure numbers are high, they’re hardly surprising: ICS exposure is a problem that’s been reported on and warned about for years. It poses a critical risk to the public as gatekeepers to the world’s critical infrastructure.”
