France Blames Iran's Revolutionary Guard for Supermarket Fridge Hacking

France has formally blamed Iran for a major cyberattack last month that tampered with supermarket refrigeration systems across the country, spoiling vast amounts of food. Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot announced that the government has summoned the Iranian ambassador to Paris to strongly protest the incident.

The Attack and Impact

The security breach occurred in the early hours of October 12, when hackers remotely took control of software used to manage cold units in roughly 700 of France's 10,000 supermarkets. Temperatures inside the fridges soared to 50 degrees Celsius for about six hours. The Intermarché supermarket chain reported losses totaling tens of millions of euros in just a single day. Major retailers including Coopérative U, Carrefour, Monoprix, and E.Leclerc were affected after attackers targeted software provided by Danish engineering firm Danfoss. BBC News reports that a second wave of hacks later hit stores in other European nations like Belgium, Luxembourg, Sweden, Ireland, the Netherlands, Estonia, and Finland.

Investigation and Response

Paris prosecutors opened a formal judicial investigation into organised cybercrime linked to a foreign power. Investigators traced the attack through Farsi language use and IP addresses connected to devices in Iran. Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau stated that the probe targets Shahid Kaveh, the leader of a cyber unit affiliated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, along with two of his deputies. France is seeking international arrest warrants and plans to push for European-level sanctions against those responsible. According to BBC News, Iranian media outlets have dismissed the allegations as baseless.

Context

This incident highlights how critical civilian infrastructure and supply chains have become vulnerable to sophisticated foreign cyber threats. State-backed hacking operations increasingly target operational technology and industrial control systems to cause physical disruption rather than just data theft.