Originally published at: NEWS AND VIEWS FROM THE NEFARIUM OCT 15 2026
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 15:37 — 25.0MB) Ok… it’s getting bad… Did you hear about that supermarket hack? If not, Joseph has some speculations on what might be going on… Hackers Heat Supermarket Fridges to 50°C in France Cyberattack
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Unhinged AI rides again, get stocked and prepped as I think we may see food shorts sooner rather than later!
As you have so often pointed out, a “third force” transnational actor may be flexing and preening for demonstration purposes in a beta test mode? Recalling this. Danielle knows a lot on X: "And of course, they did warn us, they have to… “A comprehensive cyber attack could bring a complete halt to the power supply, transportation, hospital services, our society as a whole. The COVID-19 crisis would be seen in this respect as a small disturbance in compariso… / X
Proof of comcept established on a “small” scale.
“They’re” targeting larger GAME - so the perpetraitors ARE State/Non-State actors?
Or, even groups of STATE/NON-STATE; testing-out cyber coordinated excercises?
In other words; is this a prelude to am actual warfare strike?
Perhaps in preparation for; attacking several global regions - at once?
As if "Their " Operation FAMINE; is just too far-off, for an all too near-future?
A Present and Clear Danger of:: Current 5th, 6th, 7h Generation Warfare -EXPOSED?
A warning to the belligerent masses, protest at your own peril. Do as we say or else… You are helplessly under our control, see?
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I guess what is the really disturbing part of this story is why all of these refrigerators are on a network in the first place. Used to be that you plugged the fridge into the power and it just turned on and started running. If it stopped working, it would just get warm inside or, heaven forbid, there might be a sensor that detected the temp drop and sound an [audible] alarm right at the fridge that stopped working! I know…that’s just crazy talk!
I just don’t understand why people can’t see this. Then again, the people that cheer for being able to control the entire refrigeration section of their grocery stores from their phones are probably the the same people who have the Bluetooth toothbrushes [REF] (now available with AI)…just in case, I guess, you need to fire up that toothbrush from your phone whilst you’re driving home! …sort of like pre-heating the oven! Truly, every day I ask, “when is the end of this insanity?”
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I loathe Bluetooth!
X 17 more loathes…
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Few things come to mind,
It is possible and we used inexpensive devices that monitored temps in our grow rooms that would alarm the managers when temps exceeded or decreased the desired level. I was the one called because I lived closest during the hours of closer (nights) . Granted that the separate internet system for these cheap temp monitors could maybe have also been hacked. 2nd thought, if they were working for humanity , I feel the smaller companies would not have been targeted. The larger chains can weather the storm but we may have another way to destroy small businesses !
3rdly I feel that ai ( sm caps on purpose) Who purposely Put That Evil in the ai ? Or… What evil (being) found itself In the ai !!!
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hi there!
with all said and heard, I made some digging on my own.
the attack vectors were digital IP addresses distributed across the national grid, the devastation was a blanket nationwide event rather than a localized outbreak spreading outward from one specific city.
The estimated overall damage amounts to: 25-40 million euros.
The most immediate non-food casualty was Etos, a major Dutch drugstore chain. Etos is owned by [Ahold Delhaize]( (the same parent company as Albert Heijn). When the parent company shut down its core networks to isolate the breach, Etos’ e-commerce platform, supply chains, and inventory tracking systems were taken offline.
Similarly, Gall & Gall, the largest specialized liquor store chain in the Netherlands, had its IT systems completely paralyzed. Also an Ahold Delhaize brand, it was subjected to the same preventative infrastructure blackout. This froze their online distribution and caused severe disruptions to in-store operations.
While the cooling crisis was unfolding, other sectors did experience unrelated cyber turmoil. For instance, global medical technology provider Boston Scientific dealt with a completely separate corporate IT breach, and Centers Laboratory in the US disclosed a historic data theft incident. However, cyber authorities in both France and the Netherlands have confirmed that the industrial “defrost” exploit remains isolated strictly to retail commerce network environments.
The Grand Total: All and all, the cyberattack structurally manipulated roughly 500 to 800 physical cooling controllers, which directly ruined the food arrays of 700 supermarkets, and ultimately triggered disruptions that froze the IT services of more than 1,800 total retail properties across France, Belgium, and the Netherlands.
An important addendum: No biological labs, chemical companies, schools, or morgues have been reported as impacted by this refrigeration cyberattack.They generally do not utilize standard commercial supermarket food-grade regulators, and are behind internal walls of security.
Ultimately, the attack wasn’t a blanket crisis for all retail businesses, but a highly precise strike that crippled roughly 5% to 7% of the critical food-distribution infrastructure feeding the French, Belgian, and Dutch public.
For digital services and supply chains, the return to normal is 3-4 days. For the supermarkets it takes a week to wholly function again…
So all in all, it looks like quite a precise operation, aimed at a given part of the economy, with minimal collateral damage. If someone thinks the masterminds don’t like the Dutch boozers and above-level drugstores without non-prescription drugs, well, who knows.
According to these, I would not be so sure that an ‘unhinged AI’ is the culprit behind it at all. It smells like teen spirits… just kidding. It smells like a test-run of viable options. These people wanted to cause damage, that is not a by-product of the hack. And it lasts a few days. The overall target of the operation I think was to show the force majeure of being capable and show the willingness of using such attacks, directed both at the rebelling constituents and the political class to drive fear into the hearts and sow chaos. What was targeted? The most direct connection between consumption, convenient comfort and survival for the masses: food on ice. Think of Macron, he surely was happy…
And it was just one attack. What other kind of ciphers/tricks do they have up in their sleeve? Remember the Spanish outages not to long ago? Could there be a connection? Spain’s government just went down. The French are on the verge of total bankruptcy and in burning rebellion of the masses,
So. The question is: who were so kind to mop the floor with the French just a bit, ruining their frozen croissants, giving them such a hand in time of need? Not some ethical ‘hackers from the hood’ for sure…
… I continue to ask the same question … as with all of these computer systems … Why is there never a Plan “B”? I have asked this so many times and received no answer. I have decided there is NEVER a Plan “B”. I hate to be the one to tell you but … With these systems there can be no Plan “B”.
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I wrote ‘viable options’, not differentiated plans, but blocks and chains of ‘action-packs’ waiting to be pulled off. This was one. Of course we may ponder upon if pulling this was in haste, a premature/forced step, or a real ‘let them know’ fireworks.
After this debacle “cooler heads” may come up with a plan B. My local HEB grocery store experienced a prolonged serious electrical outage several years ago before the COVID craziness and lost all their refrigerated and frozen food, plus the inability to use the cash registers. Within a few months they installed a natural gas generator large enough to power the entire store when the power goes off. Last month their refrigeration units for package meat and the butcher counter cratered however they were able to move all the stock into other refrigerated areas with no interruption of services. The many empty shelves looked really weird. They reminded me of a doomsday scenario.
I still claim AI is being used as a scapegoat, there are people behind these events.
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agreed.
and the 20 dwarves and elves with guns
So far, Humans appear to be in charge.
There maybe Sanity issues…
But between the asylum leadership…
Or an AI leadership… ?
I’ll plead Insanity.
[GO ANALOG!]
I keep thinking of American Indian people who ‘went into the trees.’ This is the way the songs were saved, the stories and the old names of things, such as was saved. I keep telling my friends that even though the ‘out there’ seems friendlier to us now we need to send some of our number back into the trees. I hope that is where Katie B is.
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