France blames Iranian Revolutionary Guard for supermarket fridge hack
Paris prosecutors opened a formal investigation and summoned the Iranian ambassador after an October cyberattack spiked temperatures in 700 stores.
By Samantha Reed ·
French authorities on Monday identified Iran as the source of a massive cyberattack that disrupted supermarket refrigeration systems across the country last month. The government summoned the Iranian ambassador and announced it would seek European sanctions against the perpetrators.
The attack occurred in the early hours of Oct. 12, when hackers remotely seized control of cooling units in approximately 700 of France's 10,000 supermarkets. Temperatures inside the fridges climbed to 50 degrees Celsius, or 122 degrees Fahrenheit, for about six hours. Stores were forced to discard fresh and frozen inventory as a result. The Intermarché chain reported single-day losses in the tens of millions of euros.
Paris prosecutor Laure Beccau opened a formal judicial investigation into the incident, characterizing it as organized cybercrime committed to serve a foreign power. The investigation specifically targets Shahid Kaveh, the leader of a cyber unit affiliated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Two of his deputies are also under scrutiny. Investigators noted that the attackers used Farsi and IP addresses linked to devices located in Iran. The prosecutor's office is seeking international arrest warrants for the individuals involved.
Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot condemned the event during G7 talks in Paris. He described the intrusion as the first large-scale cyberattack aimed at sabotage on French soil. Barrot stated that the act represented a major threat to national interests and the security of the French people. He pledged to impose sanctions at the European level against all responsible parties and to take any other necessary measures to deter future attacks.
The French Foreign Ministry issued a statement condemning the attack in the strongest possible terms. The government summoned the Iranian ambassador to formally protest the incident. This move follows a similar cyberattack last week on several blood banks in France. In that case, the system tried to raise temperatures to extreme levels, but the national cybersecurity agency thwarted the attempt before blood products were damaged. Supermarkets in Sweden, Belgium, Luxembourg, Ireland, and Estonia also reported freezer and fridge issues last week, likely caused by cyberattacks.
