France blames Iran’s Revolutionary Guards for hacking supermarket fridges

France accused Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on 9 November of carrying out cyberattacks that took control of refrigerators in hundreds of French supermarkets in October. Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said there would be consequences for Iran.

Mr. Barrot said Iran’s ambassador had been summoned to the Foreign Ministry in Paris. He also called for more sanctions on Iran at the level of the European Union. French authorities have opened an investigation into the Iranian unit they hold responsible, France 24 reported.

What happened

The attacks on 11 and 12 October overrode the temperature controls on commercial fridges and freezers. Temperatures rose so high that some shops had to throw away all their fresh and frozen food, according to reports by AFP and Reuters. Some units caught fire. One supermarket owner estimated the total cost at tens of millions of euros, Reuters reported.

The company that made many of the affected units said several were old or ran outdated software, which may have made them easy to break into, according to Reuters.

A second wave of similar attacks this month hit more than 100 sites across Europe, Reuters reported. It also reached fridges used by French blood banks, whose staff had to move blood to other cold stores.

Iran’s response

Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not reply to Reuters’ requests for comment. Iran usually denies carrying out cyberattacks.

The background

The United States and Iran have been at war since February. The conflict has seen several suspected cyberattacks, including on the Los Angeles transport system in March and on American water treatment plants in July, according to Reuters. In August, fridges failed at several US military stores. Pentagon investigators are treating that as a suspected cyberattack and consider Iran a suspect, Reuters reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.