OrganisationDK

Danfoss

Danish engineering manufacturer of refrigeration, heating and drive controls.

Founded in 1933, Danfoss is a family-owned Danish engineering group whose products include refrigeration, air-conditioning and heating controls, and industrial drives.

Last refreshed: 22 October 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic

Key Question

Can retailers secure old Danfoss controllers without replacing them?

Timeline for Danfoss

#15 12 Oct

Fridge hack spoils food across Europe

Cybersecurity: Threats and Defences

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Background

Danfoss is a family-owned Danish engineering group founded in Nordborg in 1933. It makes controls and systems for refrigeration, air conditioning and heating, as well as industrial drives. Its refrigeration portfolio includes the AK-SM and AK-SC controller families used to manage cooling equipment remotely.

Product support is a lasting issue for operators because some Danfoss controllers remain in service after the company has retired them. Danfoss phased out its AK-SC255 and AK-SC355 controllers in 2016, then declared other refrigeration controller lines at the end of their lives in 2021. A customer newsletter later announced a firm end-of-service policy and cited European cyber law. These decisions leave users responsible for replacing or isolating older equipment rather than relying on indefinite vendor support. That matters because the controllers can expose remote management of cooling systems, giving maintenance access direct operational importance.

Common Questions

What does Danfoss make?

Danfoss makes controls and components for refrigeration, heating, air conditioning, power electronics and industrial drives.Source: Danfoss

Which Danfoss controllers were named in the European fridge attacks?

CERT-FR named Danfoss AK-SM and AK-SC remote refrigeration controllers among the compromised systems.Source: CERT-FR

Did attackers exploit a known Danfoss flaw?

No entry method has been confirmed. CERT-FR named compromised product families but did not identify the flaw, credentials or other route used.Source: CERT-FR

How should operators protect Danfoss refrigeration controllers?

CERT-FR says operators should remove management interfaces from the public internet, inspect defrost schedules and restrict maintenance access through a virtual private network.Source: CERT-FR

Source Material

Refrigeration Controller Hack Spoils Food Across European Supermarkets CERTFR-2026-ALE-012: Incident de sécurité ciblant les contrôleurs à distance des installations de réfrigération Danfoss the company Our journey to engineering a better future

How the World Sees Them

FirstVDS

There are no traces of the attack on the affected virtual servers

ESET

first documented case of Yggdrasil being abused in this way by a state-aligned threat actor

Cyber Security Agency of Singapore

Attackers are exploiting

Canadian Centre for Cyber Security

open-source reporting indicating that the vulnerability is being exploited in the wild

Ahold Delhaize (Frans Muller)

was caused by the malicious actions of others

ENISA

the manufacturer is not required to comply with the vulnerability handling obligations

CERT-FR (ANSSI)

probablement toujours en cours

ASOS

impersonating a trusted contact

Check Point

actively exploited on Spark Firewalls as of September 12, 2026

Written with AI from Lowdown's published reporting. Not individually reviewed by an editor. Updated 22 October 2026. Editorial standards.