millions of dollars of economic damage sure, it doesn't contribute to social upheaval. It's a one time pain in the ass, this seems pretty hysterical tbh
They are constantly running tons of attacks like this. This one you heard about because it hit grocery store systems, but the attacks big and small all over Europe right now are staggering. Physical and digital. Arson attacks on warehouses, drone attacks, gun dead drops in the German woods, etc etc etc.
Eventually people don't feel safe anymore. That's the goal.
You're looking at moving a single chess pawn like it's the entire game. No, it's just one move.
> It's a one time pain in the ass, this seems pretty hysterical tbh
You're not thinking about the second and third order effects enough, either.
How much labor is going to go into trying to patch these systems or redesign the physical or digital infra for them? For each store? How many other systems like this are online and just didn't get hit? Those will need to be patched and upgrades too, maybe taken offline. So if they normally monitor these remotely, now they have to add another system in place for vpn, increasing cost and time and complexity. Now EVERY vendor of similar systems is going to be looking at how to not end up on the news like this.
Now expand beyond fridgerators. Think about freezers, too. Water systems. Power distribution. Internet access. Payment systems. Government websites, etc. All of this stuff is under attack right now.