ADاشتہار / AdvertisementGoogle Ad
France Blames Iran for Hacking 700 Supermarket FridgesWorld
France has accused Iran’s Revolutionary Guards of hacking refrigeration at 700 supermarkets, calling it the first large-scale cyber sabotage on French soil.
Share:
Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot made the accusation on Monday, 9 November, on the sidelines of a meeting of G7 foreign ministers in Paris. He said the attack was “unprecedented in both its scale and its level of aggression” and vowed that it would not go unanswered. France has summoned Iran’s ambassador to Paris and says it will pursue sanctions against those responsible at a European level.
The attacks took place overnight on 11 and 12 October. According to France’s national cybersecurity agency, ANSSI, hackers took control of refrigeration controllers at roughly 700 retail sites, from supermarkets to butcher shops, and raised temperatures in the middle of the night by hijacking the units’ defrost function. In some cases temperatures climbed to 50 degrees Celsius, spoiling large quantities of perishable food and causing equipment damage and fires.
ADاشتہار / AdvertisementGoogle Ad
ANSSI attributed the operation to Shahid Kaveh, a cyber-offensive unit affiliated with the Electronic and Cyber Centre of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. French investigators pointed to technical indicators including the use of Persian language in the attack infrastructure and internet addresses linked to devices in Iran. The unit is also known in the cyber world as CyberAv3ng3rs. The Paris prosecutor’s office has opened a judicial investigation into the head of the unit and his two deputies, and is seeking international arrest warrants.
Major French grocery chains were among those affected. Intermarché reported that at least 300 of its stores and its Netto brand locations were hit, while more than 100 Coopérative U supermarkets were affected. Carrefour, Monoprix and E.Leclerc were also targeted. ANSSI’s director general told French senators last month that the intrusions had been made possible by basic security flaws, including weak passwords on internet-connected equipment.
There was no immediate comment from Tehran on the French allegations. Iran has previously denied conducting malicious cyber operations. The French accusation nevertheless marks a sharp escalation, moving the matter from a technical investigation to direct diplomatic action against Tehran.
Speaking on Tuesday, Barrot said France ruled out nothing and would take all measures it deemed proportionate and necessary to deter further attacks, including steps it might not disclose publicly. Similar refrigeration failures were reported at supermarkets in Sweden, Belgium and Ireland earlier this month, though French officials said it remains unclear whether those incidents are linked to the French case.
Related Coverage
