More from the article ...

... Korean outlets were the first to report the problems, which affect Samsung's Bespoke AI line of fridges. Star News Korea, per a Google-provided translation, said that most of the affected devices were four-door fridges from 2024 or later.

Affected fridges "suddenly lost power and stopped functioning immediately after" trying to issue a firmware update through SmartThings, Samsung's smart home platform, per Star News Korea. The SmartThings app then showed the devices as offline. Some users said that their fridge's internal display was stuck showing the message "Checking SmartThings app during update."

There are numerous reports on Samsung's Korean community forum detailing the problem. Some users claim that they have owned their affected fridge for just a year or less.

"[T]he refrigeration and refrigeration functions themselves did not work normally, so all the food in the refrigerator had to be disposed of," one user wrote, per a translation.

Samsung responded to Ars Technica's request for comment, saying:

The issue has been limited to Korea, with no impact identified to overseas markets. It occurred September 22nd afternoon due to an error during Samsung's internal testing related to a refrigerator software update. Samsung immediately suspended the testing upon receiving reports of the issue. Samsung has activated an emergency response protocol, and its service centers are taking immediate action to address this issue.

Samsung didn't respond to Ars' questions about what it will do to prevent this from happening in the future or how many units are affected. SBS Korea reported that customers have filed hundreds of cases. ...

OK, my first question ...

Why does a refrigerator need a firmware update?

... and if I may be allowed a follow-up question ...

Why on earth does a refrigerator need firmware?

A couple thermostats, a compressor, a couple three coils and three maybe four fans. That's it.

Where does firmware enter the equation?

@#3 ... I am firmly against such things. ...

Good for you.

My view is that a refrigerator has one job, and one job only. Stay cool (or cold, in the case of the freezer).

Firmware does not need to be involved (and should not be) in that one job.

Along the lines of firmware in appliances...

A couple years ago I had to replace the range in the kitchen. I opted for a LG range. (hindsight: bad choice. The UI, knobs and such, sucks, big time.)

Now I see on the scans of active WiFi items around me, "[LG_Oven]hdgre"

I have spent time deep in the instruction manual for the range, but I have not yet found out how to turn off that WiFi access point of the range.

My first question is, how susceptible to hacking is my range?

My second question is, why should I need to worry about that for my range?

OK, let's look through history, in a not-so-detailed (and an unseriously)-manner ...

- humans emerged

- they were living on plains

- then they discovered caves

- but caves were cold, but the food was preserved because of that cold

- then humans discovered fire to heat up those caves

- but, because of that heat, humans discovered that food rots at warm temperatures

- so humans started to bring ice into the now warm caves to keep the food cold.

- thus, eventually, the creation of the Freon-enabled refrigerator.

- And then is is discovered that Freon (dichlorodifluoromethane) makes the world hotter ...

I'll stop here ...

@#10 ... no wifi connection on the stove ...

The problem is that I cannot turn off the WiFi access point that is in the range, yes, the range broadcasts its own SSID.

And that with that access point in the range, someone may be able to hack into it and maybe even turn it on remotely.