Making Tech Headlines · Page 8
Federal Agencies Warn That Connected Freezers Have Become a Hot Security Concern
· New York time
The FBI and CISA warn that hackers are actively targeting industrial refrigeration and cold-chain monitoring systems around the world. The agencies say attacks could potentially lead to food spoilage, equipment damage and fire hazards. Cold-chain systems help monitor temperatures as products are stored and moved, making their reliability important well beyond the room containing a single freezer. The warning describes potential consequences, not a claim that every targeted system has already spoiled food or caused a fire. It does show how connected equipment can create a security concern in an otherwise ordinary industrial setting. A temperature monitor is installed to help people notice when something is wrong with the cold. Once it is connected, the system itself also becomes something that needs attention. That is an awkward expansion of the facilities manager's job description: the equipment keeping inventory cold may depend on safeguards normally associated with computers and networks. Businesses value monitoring because it can make a complex supply chain easier to supervise. Attackers, meanwhile, have found that a quiet machine with an important task is still a tempting target. Refrigeration was supposed to be the part of the operation that stayed out of the conversation. Now even the freezer has to sit through a cybersecurity meeting.
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