Yesterday, I went to Oxford, eager to attend the Professional Speaking Association’s annual Speaking Business Summit. Shortly after I arrived, I realised my enthusiasm to get on with the day had made me forget something basic. As I sat down in the conference room, my phone buzzed in my pocket. I took it out for a quick glance and saw the message was from my car’s app. It said I had forgotten to lock the doors. Luckily, the app lets me control the car remotely, so I could fix my mistake right away.
This is the kind of convenience that many of us are used to these days. For example, you might have an app that lets you control your home heating system. Or you might have a remote-access doorbell so you can tell a delivery driver to leave the parcel behind the gate while you sun yourself on a far-flung beach.
However, as I sat in that conference room yesterday smugly congratulating myself on my use of remote technology, a thought crossed my mind. I was reminded of the recent attack on fridges in French supermarkets. Remotely-controlled fridges in hundreds of stores were hacked by an as-yet-unknown party. The cyberattackers turned up the fridges, causing them to run hot and destroying significant amounts of food.
The software company that created the remote-control system said the attack mostly affected older fridges that couldn’t be updated. The company knew about the vulnerability a year ago and warned customers in its October 2025 newsletter.
Clearly, even though there was a software fault, companies that didn’t upgrade their fridges must bear some responsibility, even if they contracted a maintenance firm to do the work. They were warned, but took no action. Only since the attack have most French operators taken their systems offline.
A similar issue could have affected my car. A few months ago I got a notice from the manufacturer saying the software needed a security update. Because my car was already booked in for a service, it meant I could get that patch almost immediately. However, recent research shows that many people don’t follow up on such recall notices. That leaves a sizeable proportion of cars on the road open to potential problems, including cyberattacks.
With computers and mobile phones, we are used to upgrades and security updates. Most systems update themselves regularly, and the most annoying thing is getting a notification that we must restart the device. Many businesses conduct regular system reviews and upgrade their computers at set intervals. They look for new features and speed improvements, but they also know older systems are more vulnerable to attacks, so they replace them regularly.
However, it is not just computers that are connected to the Internet these days. Billions of other items, known as the “Internet of Things” (IoT), are connected. French fridges are IoT devices. My car is a “thing” connected to the Internet. So are the lightbulbs I control via an app, my office heating, and my doorbell. All of these could give a hacker access to my home network and a backdoor into my computer. I am not alone.
According to a recent Statista study, only 20% of homes in the USA lack smart home technology. Most homes have multiple Internet connections that aren’t computers but “things”. And it is going to get worse. This summer, market intelligence and advisory firm Omdia published data showing a significant rise in satellite-based IoT connections. They say this is because companies need more “things” connected globally.
Attacks on “things” are increasing. Apart from the French fridges, several others have been documented. The Internet security company ESET warned people about the problems in a blog post earlier this year.
So, what can we do about this? In a Times Radio discussion on this topic earlier in the week, one solution suggested was to go “analogue”. The idea was that if we gave up the technology, we would also get rid of the problem. That’s not possible for many businesses. Their landlord’s heating and their payment terminals are already connected to the Internet. Opting out personally and going analogue with your own systems doesn’t remove the exposure.
Also, IoT offers significant benefits beyond locking my car remotely. For example, there are early-warning fire detectors. Plus, a wide range of IoT medical devices can help save lives. Equally, remote-controlled fridges help companies save money by maintaining better temperature regulation without needing to employ hundreds of people just to check the settings.
People who don’t upgrade their car software when they’re prompted, and supermarkets that don’t update their fridges, tell us one thing. IoT software companies aren’t the whole issue. Human behaviour is the problem. We can’t keep ignoring that IoT is a real vulnerability in our homes and offices.
So, start this weekend. List every connected item in your home and office, when it was installed, and whether it still receives updates. Switch on auto-updates wherever you can. Then ask your landlord, maintenance contractors, and suppliers to do the same for the equipment they run on your behalf. Put replacement dates in the diary, just as you would for your computers.
The French supermarkets only acted after the damage was done, and most simply unplugged their systems rather than update them. Meanwhile, operators in other countries carried on as before. That is optimism bias at work, which makes us believe these attacks will happen to other people, not us.
Yesterday, my car told me I’d left the doors unlocked. Most of the “things” in your building will never send you such a message. You have to go and check. Otherwise, you risk a cyberattack on your home or office.
