Kyiv Cybersecurity Chief Says European Supermarket Freezer Attack Was Simple and Likely AI-Assisted

Monday night's cyberattack affected several European countries, including Sweden, where the refrigerators and freezers in Coop and ICA stores were heated, meaning food had to be thrown away.

Similar attacks have also been attempted in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, but the impact has been less severe because fewer refrigerators and freezers are connected to the internet.

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Oleksandr Voloshchuk, from the municipal company Kyivteleservice, works to protect the city's digital infrastructure.

If you connect freezers to the internet, you also have to protect them. From what we have seen from this attack, many systems have not been updated, Voloshchuk told TT during a visit to Bahnhof's Pionen data center in Stockholm.

It is most likely that those behind the attacks used AI to detect vulnerabilities, he says.

It's a straightforward attack. And since many have the same supplier, it's enough to find a vulnerability.

In its simplicity, the freezer attack is still a clear example of how digital attacks can have a direct impact on the physical world, he says.

You can close roads, change traffic lights, turn a freezer into a microwave, and so on.

Built from the ground up

Oleksandr Voloshchuk heads the security operations center (SOC) established in the capital after Russia sharply escalated its invasion in February 2022. Voloshchuk and his colleagues had to start from scratch to gradually build up the system used to detect and defend the city's digital infrastructure against Russian cyberattacks, when the major Russian offensive became a reality.

The center should have existed even before the war, says Voloshchuk.

If you are not ready beforehand, it is a big challenge to deal with it after the war breaks out.

According to Voloshchuk, Russian cyberattacks have not yet been so successful that they have critically affected Kyiv's digital infrastructure. However, a new type of attack has recently begun targeting the capital.

In the last 1-2 months, we have seen many attacks where AI is used in the first stage. We assess that Russia has gained access to AI models from China, so it will be a challenge for us, and it is something we are preparing for.

Correction: An earlier version of the text gave the wrong year for Russia's major invasion.