France accuses Iran of supermarket fridge hacking

France says Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was responsible for a cyberattack that remotely altered refrigeration controls in hundreds of supermarkets, spoiling fresh and frozen food worth an estimated millions of euros. Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot called it an unprecedented act of sabotage and a serious threat to national interests, and said France would pursue European sanctions against those responsible. Paris has summoned Iran’s ambassador to protest and says it may take further proportionate measures. Iran has not responded to the accusation.

The attack began on 11 October, when hackers took control of software used to manage supermarket cooling units remotely. More than 100 Coopérative U stores and 180 Intermarché and Netto stores were affected; Carrefour, Monoprix and E.Leclerc were also hit. In some locations, refrigerator temperatures reportedly climbed to 50C overnight. A later wave disrupted stores in Belgium, Luxembourg and five other European countries, though authorities have not established whether the incidents were connected. France has opened an investigation into the leader and two deputies of an IRGC-linked cyber unit called Shahid Kaveh. The government has not explained how it attributed the attack to Iran, and investigators face the difficulty of identifying perpetrators who can conceal their location. Russian-aligned hacktivist groups claimed responsibility, but their assertions attracted little confidence.