France Accuses Iran’s Revolutionary Guards of Supermarket Fridge Cyberattack

The update

France’s foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, said on Monday that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps carried out a cyberattack last month that heated fridges and freezers in supermarkets across France. Barrot called the attack unprecedented in scale and aggression and said France would seek sanctions at European level against those responsible. Euronews reported at least 350 supermarkets were hit, including Carrefour, Monoprix, Intermarché and Coopérative U, when attackers overrode fridge temperatures. The BBC reported food worth millions of euros was spoiled. Iran has not yet responded to the accusation, and Barrot said Iran’s ambassador to France would be summoned.

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Why it matters

A government publicly blaming another state’s forces for sabotaging civilian food supplies marks a sharp escalation in state cyber conflict. Similar fridge and freezer attacks hit dozens of supermarkets in seven other European countries last week, although the BBC said it is not known whether those incidents are linked to the French attack.

What to watch

France says its investigation is still under way, and the Paris prosecutor has opened an investigation into the head of an offensive cyber unit associated with the Revolutionary Guards. Watch for Iran’s response, the European sanctions France has promised, and whether investigators link the attacks in the other European countries to the same operation.

Sources

• bbc.co.uk — France’s accusation against the Revolutionary Guards, the scale of the French attack and the planned European sanctions
• euronews.com — the number and names of supermarkets hit, the ambassador summons and the continuing investigation

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