Brokers say cyber policies typically do not cover physical losses such as those from the French supermarket fridge hack

Retailers hit by last weekend's refrigeration attack in France may get little from their cyber insurance, according to brokers quoted by Insurance Business on 16 October 2026. Four brokers told Reuters that such policies "typically do not cover physical losses" caused by an attack, and Intermarché told AFP that its own cover did not respond to this kind of incident. What any retailer can recover depends on the terms of its own contracts; Aon's David Molony said businesses should review the question carefully, and the report notes that spoiled stock needs a separate endorsement or a specialist product.

New data from cyber insurer Coalition shows how exposed such equipment was beforehand. From 7 September to 6 October, its external scans found 1,506 internet addresses on which a Danfoss StoreView admin panel could be reached, 820 of them (54%) on French networks. Insurance Edge reported that Coalition ran no intrusion tests and did not show that these devices had been compromised or that they belonged to the stores that were attacked.

The attack itself took place overnight on 11-12 October, when intruders took remote control of refrigeration at about 350 stores and drove fridge and freezer temperatures to 50°C. Thierry Cotillard of Les Mousquetaires, the group that owns Intermarché, put possible national food losses in the tens of millions of euros and said a fight over liability had begun. France's cybersecurity agency named Danfoss, Copeland and Dixell as suppliers of the software involved. Claroty's Team82 disclosed two Danfoss flaws in August (CVE-2025-41450 and CVE-2025-41451), and Danfoss has issued firmware R4.3.1.

Underwriters quoted in the report gave mixed signals for buyers. Paul Gooch of Tokio Marine Kiln told Reuters that running old software is not usually enough on its own for an insurer to refuse a claim, while Beazley's Sydonie Williams said attacks in France and Britain could lead to higher premiums for retailers.