An EU official responsible for cybersecurity has warned that, following attacks on fridges and freezers in supermarkets, household appliances could be next. The warning was issued to AFP by Juhan Lepassaar, executive director of the EU Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA).
Lepassaar described the potential sequence of attacks, saying: "Today it is fridges, tomorrow it could be routers, the day after household appliances, and so on." He called on Europe to invest more in countering the growing cyber threats.
In October and November, supermarkets in at least 12 European countries were targeted by cyberattacks, with France hit the hardest. Hundreds of French supermarkets were attacked on 11 and 12 October, causing temperatures in fridges and freezers to rise, and forcing many traders to discard entire stocks of perishable food. France announced on Monday that it considers the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) responsible for the supermarket attacks. Lepassaar did not directly comment on this accusation, but noted that it is known that Iranian and Russian "state-linked actors" are targeting Europe, with "significant cooperation" between them.
"China, Iran, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea - there are many state-linked threat actors targeting European companies and European interests," Lepassaar stated.
The head of ENISA emphasised that cybersecurity is crucial because "every service you rely on as a citizen, as a human being, contains a digital component, a piece of code that, if not protected, can become the target of a hacker attack." The worst-case scenario, he warned, would involve the loss of services "you rely on: the arrival of the police, the arrival of firefighters, the functioning of hospitals, transport that takes you from point A to point B." These services must function well "24 hours a day, seven days a week," and the consequences would be felt immediately if they ceased to function, he explained.
Lepassaar called on manufacturers to create products that are secure "right in the design". "All incidents can be avoided, but the question is whether we are willing to invest the resources to achieve this? Cybersecurity is not cheap," he stated.
He welcomed the EU's cybersecurity regulations, which will come fully into force next year, as well as the Union's plans to "double the size of the ENISA agency, and its resources". However, he said, this will never be enough, "but it is a good first step".
