Hackers reportedly changed temperature settings on refrigeration equipment used by the French Blood Establishment, EFS, from around −30°C to 110°C after targeting its cooling service provider, Coolworld.
I’m not against remote monitoring. But remote controls are just fucking stupid in a freezer. Pretty much any temperature change needs someone on site anyway in order to move the freezer’s contents someplace else beforehand. Keeping temperature constant can be accomplished via a simple thermostat. If you really need some sort of cycle that changes temperature over time, the controller doing that can be purely off line as well. Anything that allows remote control endangers the contents of your freezer.
I mostly agree. I can think of a few niche uses for it. However, they are very uncommon. E.g. bringing a freezer of blood up from “deep storage” temperatures to “ready to use in a hurry”.
I can also think of a few more where a “boost mode” could be useful e.g. a supermarket that knows there is a heat wave. Over-chilling the freezers would let them cope better with the temperature spike later in the day.
Critically, these should still be within safe hard limits. The fact that hackers could effectively switch them off in mass is the huge issue.
I’m not against remote monitoring. But remote controls are just fucking stupid in a freezer. Pretty much any temperature change needs someone on site anyway in order to move the freezer’s contents someplace else beforehand. Keeping temperature constant can be accomplished via a simple thermostat. If you really need some sort of cycle that changes temperature over time, the controller doing that can be purely off line as well. Anything that allows remote control endangers the contents of your freezer.
I mostly agree. I can think of a few niche uses for it. However, they are very uncommon. E.g. bringing a freezer of blood up from “deep storage” temperatures to “ready to use in a hurry”.
I can also think of a few more where a “boost mode” could be useful e.g. a supermarket that knows there is a heat wave. Over-chilling the freezers would let them cope better with the temperature spike later in the day.
Critically, these should still be within safe hard limits. The fact that hackers could effectively switch them off in mass is the huge issue.