France Blames Iran's Revolutionary Guards for Cyberattack on Supermarket Fridges

"I can confirm that this attack was carried out by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of the Islamic Republic of Iran," Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said after a meeting of G7 foreign ministers in Paris, according to ABC News. He called the operation "unprecedented in both its scale and its level of aggression" and added: "We will implement sanctions at the European level against all those responsible for this attack."

The Paris prosecutor's office said it had opened a judicial investigation into the head of Shahid Kaveh, an offensive cyber unit attached to the Revolutionary Guards, and into his two deputies. ABC News reported that the investigation by prosecutor Laure Beccuau also covers anyone else who may be identified, and that it places the unit under the IRGC's Electronic and Cyber Center. Prosecutors have asked for international arrest warrants for all three men.

For retailers and the companies that sell them building systems, the case shows that a state-linked group can go after operational equipment, not just networks that hold customer or payment data. ABC News reported that the attackers raised fridge temperatures remotely, which forced stores to pull stock from the shelves and led many to close. According to Al Jazeera, the attacks also caused fires as well as food waste. Barrot said the investigation was still under way.

Reports disagree on how many stores were hit. Reuters said hundreds of French supermarkets were affected, while CNN put the figure at about 700 retailers. Stores run by Carrefour, Monoprix, Intermarché and Coopérative U were among those hit. Barrot said the attacks on French supermarkets took place on October 11 and 12. Reuters gave the timing as early October and called the attacks among the most disruptive cyber operations of the Iran war, which began in February.

France may not be the only country affected. According to ABC News, supermarket fridges in several European countries were disrupted in mid-October and again the following week, though it is not clear whether the second wave is linked. Barrot is the first European leader to publicly blame the IRGC for the attacks, the broadcaster said.

The reports carried no immediate response from Tehran.

Two things happen next. The arrest warrants depend on international cooperation, and the men named are believed to work for a unit of Iran's armed forces. Any European sanctions would need agreement among EU member states, and Barrot did not say when France would put forward a proposal or which people or entities it would cover.