{"id":96305,"date":"2026-10-13T08:15:19","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T07:15:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=96305"},"modified":"2026-10-13T08:15:19","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T07:15:19","slug":"the-cry-for-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2026\/10\/13\/the-cry-for-help\/","title":{"rendered":"The cry for help"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2026\/oct\/12\/cyber-attack-defrosts-refrigerators-france-supermarket-chains-intermarche-cooperative-u\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Guardian reported<\/a> this yesterday evening:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Hackers have forced the temperature of many French supermarket fridges up to 50C overnight, in an \u201cunprecedented\u201d cyber-attack affecting several hundred stores across the country, with fires and food losses reported.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The Paris prosecutor\u2019s office said on Monday \u2060the large-scale attack was \u201caffecting connected refrigerators \u2060in several \u200bmajor food retailers across France\u201d. Reported damage included \u201cfood losses and fires\u201d, it added.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Hundreds of supermarkets have been involved.<\/p>\n<p>Why did this happen?<\/p>\n<p>These supermarkets tried to remove people from their systems, sending the message that they didn't trust them to control a thermostat.<\/p>\n<p>I do not condone what happened, but people are fighting back.<\/p>\n<p>Why should anyone be surprised? When we remove autonomy from people and send subliminal messages of implied worthlessness as a consequence, dissatisfaction will result.<\/p>\n<p>Economies and companies are not about maximising financial returns by increasing, however marginally, something like automating freezer temperatures might have done. They are about serving, engaging with, and respecting people.<\/p>\n<p>When will we learn?<\/p>\n<p>The reaction to this will focus on criminality. In the world we have, that is what it is. But, in my opinion, the cry for help implicit in it will not be heard. And that worries me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Guardian reported this yesterday evening: Hackers have forced the temperature of many French supermarket fridges up to 50C overnight, in an \u201cunprecedented\u201d cyber-attack affecting<br \/><a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2026\/10\/13\/the-cry-for-help\/\"><em> Read the full article&#8230;<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,204,35,16,147],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-corruption","category-economic-justice","category-economics","category-ethics","category-inequality"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96305"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96306,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96305\/revisions\/96306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}