The episode followed attacks on industrial freezers at an Israeli food production plant in May. It also followed freezer malfunctions that spoiled food at US military bases in August and are now reportedly being treated as a suspected hack.
The main concern is AI, a technology now capable of highlighting previously unforeseen flaws in IT systems and of helping attackers plan and carry out attacks.
The attacks have not been officially attributed to Iran. A French announcement is the first to implicate the state in this type of hack.
There was no message this time. The disruption still made headlines around the world.
The underlying context of the fridge attacks is not artificial intelligence but geopolitics.
Pilling said there was now a presumption that the French attacks and a wave of rogue defrosting hacks across Europe last week were linked. The attacks themselves “were not particularly complex,” Pilling said. The vulnerabilities in the refrigeration systems were relatively easy to find and exploit. “In general Iran uses cyber-attacks to project power internationally and to signal their political displeasure with regional and international adversaries,” Pilling said.