World News by Wild Rose

French investigators on Tuesday ​were hunting the hackers who seized control of cooling units at hundreds of supermarkets in a cyberattack that underlined the vulnerabilities of connected systems, with no group publicly claiming responsibility. FRANCE 24's Sharon Gaffney speaks with Marta Rybczynska, cybersecurity expert at Ygreky. She says that basic measures like regularly updating software or passwords are essential to prevent hacking attacks.

French investigators on Tuesday ​were hunting the hackers who seized control of cooling units at hundreds of supermarkets in a cyberattack that underlined the vulnerabilities of connected systems, with no group publicly claiming responsibility. FRANCE 24's Sharon Gaffney speaks with Marta Rybczynska, cybersecurity expert at Ygreky. She says that basic measures like regularly updating software or passwords are essential to prevent hacking attacks.

After recent Ukrainian bombings of Russian data centres belonging to Yandex, internet users claim to have noticed a sharp reduction in pro-Russian and far-right populist social media content. They suggest the reduction is a direct result of the strikes cutting off Russian disinformation "bots". We examine the claim in this edition of Truth or Fake.

More than 500 shops across France were hit in a major cyberattack on freezers, which caused tonnes of food to perish.

Major French supermarket chains on Monday said they were hit by a cyberattack that caused their refrigerators to shoot up in temperature in hundreds of stores, forcing spoiled food to be thrown away and raising concerns about food security.

Hundreds of supermarkets across France have been targeted in an unprecedented cyberattack that remotely altered the temperatures of fridges and freezers, causing large quantities of fresh and frozen food to spoil. Major retailers, including Carrefour, Monoprix, E.Leclerc and Coopérative U, were affected, with the Les Mousquetaires group reporting around 300 impacted stores. Losses could reach several million euros. The refrigeration systems involved used outdated software that no longer received security updates. Some fires were also reported, and French authorities have launched an investigation to identify those responsible.

A cyberattack targeting supermarket refrigeration systems has left shelves empty across France.

Hackers raise temperatures in supermarket fridges, sparking fires and spoiling food in 'large-scale' cyberattack.

Major French supermarket chains Intermarché and Coopérative U were hit by a cyberattack that caused their refrigerators to defrost, the two retailers told AFP Monday. Some 150-200 Intermarché shops were targeted, along with almost 100 Coopérative U outlets, in the attack, they said. Paris prosecutors confirmed the attack, which reportedly also hit other major chains, and also indicated it had prompted outbreaks of fire. BFM TV said France’s largest supermarket chain E. Leclerc was also affected,...

Hundreds of French supermarket chains were targeted overnight Sunday to Monday in a cyberattack that affected the refrigerators of up to 200 Intermarché stores and almost 100 Coopérative U locations, according to the retailers. Carrefour said that 80 of its supermarkets had also been hit.

It is the third time this week that Ukraine has targeted Russian tech giant Yandex, forcing the company to suspend its operations.

Tokyo, Oct. 11 (Jiji Press)--Massive driver's license data breaches that recently hit the Times Car vehicle-sharing service in Japan due to a cyberattack have made many people in the country scramble to seek reissuance of their licenses. The move apparently reflects concerns about the possibility of their driver's license data being abused. Still, police say that driver's license renewal wo...

Tokyo, Oct. 9 (Jiji Press)--Japan's Financial Services Agency on Friday called on financial institutions to review their cybersecurity measures in response to a recent series of customer data breaches caused by unauthorized access. The agency asked financial institutions to examine their response procedures in the event of a cyberattack and take necessary measures promptly if any deficienci...

Tokyo, Oct. 7 (Jiji Press)--IDC Frontier Inc., a Tokyo-based subsidiary of SoftBank Group Corp., announced Wednesday that a glitch occurred in its IDCF Cloud service for local governments and companies on the day, due to unauthorized access from a third party. While the company did not disclose the clients of the service, many websites, including those of Ibaraki Prefecture, east of Tokyo, th...

Osaka, Oct. 6 (Jiji Press)--Osaka Metropolitan University has said that data on at least 130,000 students and teachers may have leaked from the institution due to a system failure caused by a cyberattack. "It is regrettable that we could not prevent the incident," Hiroyuki Sakuragi, president of the university in Osaka Prefecture, western Japan, said at a press conference held Monday to ann...

Advanced artificial intelligence tools may have been used in a cyberattack on South Korea’s Shinhan Bank Co. that exposed information on about 25,000 customers, Yonhap News reported, highlighting the risk of automated hacking against financial institutions.

Hong Kong will introduce security arrangements, including contingency plans for potential terrorist attacks, for the coming Apec meeting to ensure it is held safely and smoothly while minimising disruption to residents’ daily lives, the security chief has said. The Apec Finance Ministers’ Meeting will be held in the city for the first time on October 20 and 21, at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai. About 500 guests, including finance ministers and senior officials from...

Tokyo, Sept. 18 (Jiji Press)--Japan's National Police Agency said Friday that a North Korean hacker group was behind a cyberattack spanning more than 100 countries, including Japan, that led to the theft of cryptocurrency worth about 1.7 billion yen. The North Korean group, called WaterPlum, infected more than 30,000 devices with malware between December last year and July this year, steali...