Could hackers gain access to my fridge after suspected supermarket attacks? - The Independent

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A slew of suspected cyber attacks on European supermarkets has prompted fresh concern about smart fridges now found throughout many homes.

Retailers Ahold Delhaize, Carrefour and Colruyt said on Monday that an overnight IT incident hit fridges and freezers in dozens of stores across Belgium, Estonia and Luxembourg, unexpectedly raising their temperature and spoiling food.

Swedish grocers ICA and Coop, as well as an Ikea superstore in Belgium, also reported similar incidents, with one store explicitly blaming a cyber attack.

The potential attack follows a similar incident in France in October, where police said hackers seized control of cooling units at hundreds of supermarkets, raising temperatures as high as 50C and causing fires and food losses.

Could Britons with internet-connected fridges be the next victims?

Fridges were once among the simplest of appliances, vulnerable to little more than someone leaving the door open. But in the era of smart technology, the fridge now sits alongside locks, thermostats and a host of other mechanical devices that are all connected to our WiFi.

Being able to monitor and control a fridge remotely can be convenient, particularly when you are away from home. But there are fears those same useful features could potentially be used in a cyber attack.

The reality is that any device that uses the internet can potentially be targeted by hackers. In 2015, researchers at a hacking conference in Las Vegas used a Samsung smart refrigerator to demonstrate how these devices could be compromised.

Whether a fridge is connected directly to your home's internet, or via an app or cloud service, it could be at risk. Hackers are usually interested in stealing data, using devices to access a larger network, or disrupting services, which is why smart devices are targeted.

However, three-quarters of attacks were focused on routers rather than appliances, according to data from the security industry.

A hacker may not appear to have much to gain from breaking into a fridge, but once inside they can potentially either control the device or gather information from it.

As the French supermarket hacks showed, accessing devices can give hackers control, allowing them to potentially cause chaos by raising temperatures and spoiling food. Devices with cameras could pick up images and sound, while a compromised router could show any information that passes through the network.

Users could see their devices being switched on or off, settings changed, or even end up being locked out of their devices. More serious attacks could see hackers use poorly secured devices to access other systems on the network or steal personal information from online accounts.

Cybersecurity researchers have demonstrated vulnerabilities in connected vehicles. In 2015, researchers remotely took control of a moving Jeep through its internet-connected entertainment system, forcing the recall of about 1.4 million vehicles and the deployment of software fixes.

Nearly ten years later, researchers disclosed a flaw that allowed them to track, unlock and start certain Kia vehicles using only number plate information.

The researchers said they reported the vulnerabilities to Kia, which fixed them within months, and there was no evidence they had been exploited ‌in real-world attacks. However, modern vehicles and aircraft are also designed with extensive safety and backup systems.

Critical infrastructure such as power and water networks generally has multiple layers of security, monitoring and regulation that consumer devices don't offer. That does not mean they are immune from cyber attacks, but they are typically much harder targets than a household appliance connected to a home Wi-Fi network.