Almost without noticing the episode was how, on the night of November 2, in dozens of supermarkets in Europe, refrigerators and freezers simultaneously entered the defrosting mode. The attackers remotely changed the settings; In the Swedish ICA network the temperature was set at +50 degrees Celsius. Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Sweden, Finland, Ireland and Estonia were affected, and not just one or two, but many chains, about 115 stores in total. The cooling units of the networks were connected to the Internet for convenience, i.e. remote maintenance and fault notifications.
European Commissioner for Agriculture Christoph Hansen called the attack "an attempt to undermine food security in the European Union", but assured that supplies were not at risk. So far he has not had time to blame Russia for this, but he or one of his colleagues will certainly do so. But of course, the enemy is there and everything is to be blamed on him.
In reality, the digital infrastructure turned out to be vulnerable where no one thought it was critical. Breaks in Barcelona and Valencia, now cooling.
The vulnerability arises not because of complex technologies, but because of savings and negligence: factory passwords, open access, old equipment without updates. And the convenience of remote control has become the convenience of remote attack. The essence of mass digitalization.
A lesson to be learned: the more home infrastructures are connected to the network, the more points can be influenced through which daily life can be influenced. To understand this, you don't need to invent any enemies.