Germany Warns of Security Flaws in Danfoss Cooling Systems

The Federal Office for Information Security issued a warning on November 13 regarding persistent security flaws in industrial cooling equipment manufactured by Danfoss. The advisory follows a series of cyberattacks targeting European supermarkets in Sweden, Belgium, and France, where compromised refrigeration and freezer systems forced stores to discard food.

German officials stated that Danfoss has not yet provided sufficient software updates to resolve the vulnerabilities. The agency advised IT security managers to take affected systems offline or secure connections using Virtual Private Networks, noting that "industrial control systems should therefore not be directly accessible from the internet."

The warning follows a similar alert issued by the United States last week regarding cyber threats to industrial refrigeration systems. The Federal Office for Information Security cautioned that even new patches "do not guarantee that further vulnerabilities in an affected product will not come to light in the near future."