#iot

Overnight from November 1 to 2, refrigeration systems at supermarkets in Belgium, Ireland, Sweden, Finland, Estonia and the Netherlands were remotely tampered with, forcing stores to throw out chilled and frozen food. In one Swedish ICA store, freezers were set to 50°C, Bloomberg reports (via Claims Journal).

Carrefour Belgium said 15 of its 700 stores were affected, Delhaize confirmed an "IT incident," Ireland's Musgrave said 13 SuperValu stores were hit, and Coop Sweden confirmed a hack at seven stores. Danish manufacturer Danfoss said the incidents involved its products, as in October, when about 700 French stores had refrigeration disabled; it told Dutch broadcaster NOS that 17 Dutch facilities were affected, according to ABC News.

No group has claimed responsibility. Bloomberg notes that equipment running legacy software that can't be patched may have stayed vulnerable after October. Separately, the Pentagon is examining freezer failures at several US military facilities; no link has been shown.

Google and partners including Japan's National Police Agency, Lumen, HUMAN Security, Plume, Synthient and TrendAI have disrupted XCPE, a botnet of more than 1.3 million Android TV boxes and other devices in over 200 countries. Google's Threat Intelligence Group says "with high confidence" that Shenzhen device maker Videostrong Technology built the backdoor into its firmware during manufacturing and sold access to criminal affiliates.

Those affiliates installed modules for ad fraud and residential-proxy services, which route other people's traffic through the owner's home connection, according to BleepingComputer. Google says it also took down command servers used by more than a dozen related malware families, cutting off at least 10 million more compromised devices, including set-top boxes, karaoke machines and telehealth hardware.

Google has cut ties with Videostrong and banned it and future affiliates from making certified Android devices. The Register notes Videostrong did not immediately respond, and that XCPE belongs to the same ecosystem as BadBox 2.0, disrupted in 2025.