France accused Iran of carrying out a cyberattack that disrupted refrigeration systems at about 700 supermarkets and said it would pursue sanctions with European partners. (Foto: Instagram)
France accused Iran on Monday, Nov. 9, of being behind an October cyberattack on supermarket refrigeration systems that led to large food losses at about 700 locations. The French government said it intends to pursue sanctions against Tehran at the European level in response.
Jean-Noël Barrot, France’s foreign minister, described the incident as unprecedented in its scale and aggressiveness. He said it was the first major cyberattack carried out for sabotage purposes on French territory. “This is a serious attack on the interests of the nation and the security of the French people,” Barrot said.
Barrot said the government had summoned Iran’s ambassador in Paris and planned to coordinate retaliatory measures with other European countries. The Paris prosecutor’s office is leading the investigation and said technical evidence gathered during the inquiry pointed to Iran. Investigators cited the use of Farsi during the operations and internet protocol addresses linked to devices located in Iran.
Authorities said the attackers accessed supermarket refrigeration systems remotely and raised the temperatures of refrigerators and freezers by activating defrost cycles. The disruption affected the storage of fresh and frozen products, and equipment at some stores caught fire. France’s public prosecutor also opened an investigation into Shahid Kaveh, head of a cyber unit linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, his two deputies and other possible participants.
Similar attacks have been reported at supermarkets in Belgium and Sweden in recent weeks, but authorities have not established a connection to the French incident. Reports from those countries said some refrigeration equipment reached temperatures as high as 50 degrees Celsius, making it impossible to preserve perishable food. The accounts also said attackers may have disabled alarm systems before changing thermostats or extending defrost cycles for several hours.
National cybersecurity agencies in Belgium and Sweden said they are monitoring the incidents. Danish company Danfoss, which specializes in refrigeration, heating and industrial automation technologies, said it had identified security vulnerabilities in the systems the previous year and had recommended installing updates to address them. Despite similarities in how the incidents were carried out, authorities have not confirmed that the attacks in France, Belgium and Sweden are related.
