France on Monday accused a cyber unit linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of carrying out large-scale attacks that disabled refrigeration systems in hundreds of supermarkets last month, causing widespread food spoilage and fires, and vowed to pursue European sanctions in response.
Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said the Iranian ambassador had been summoned and confirmed that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was responsible for the October 11-12 incidents. “I can confirm that this attack was carried out by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Barrot said. He described the operation as “unprecedented in its level of aggression” and “the first large-scale cyberattack carried out for sabotage purposes on French soil.”
“It represents a major attack on the nation’s interests and on the security of the French people. That is why it will not go unanswered,” he added, announcing that sanctions would be sought at the European level against those responsible. “We will also take any other measures that are proportionate and necessary, whether public or private, to respond to this attack and deter anyone who might seek to repeat it.”
The Paris prosecutor’s office said it had opened an investigation and requested international arrest warrants against the leader of Shahid Kaveh, an offensive cyber unit affiliated with the IRGC, and his two deputies. Investigators cited the use of Farsi language and IP addresses linked to devices in Iran, along with technical patterns matching previous activity by the group.
Attackers gained remote access to refrigeration systems and raised temperatures to as high as 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) overnight. Major chains including E-Leclerc, Intermarché, Carrefour, Monoprix and Coopérative U were affected, with hundreds of stores hit and millions of euros in food wasted. In some cases the heat triggered fires or damaged equipment.
Similar temperature spikes were later reported in supermarket systems in Belgium, Estonia, Ireland, Luxembourg and Sweden. Iran has rejected the French accusations as baseless.
