French officials blame Iran for refrigerator hacks, vow retaliation

French authorities blamed Iran's Revolutionary Guards for a cyberattack that disabled commercial refrigerators and freezers in hundreds of French supermarkets in early October, warning that Iran would face consequences. The hacks, among the most disruptive of the Iran conflict that began in February, targeted at least 700 commercial sites across France, with at least 15 fires resulting from the malicious attacks.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot summoned the Iranian ambassador to France and threatened additional EU sanctions. One French supermarket owner estimated the total costs could reach tens of millions of euros nationwide. The attack's effects extended beyond supermarkets, affecting small butcher stores, a slaughterhouse, and food processing factories.

French spy and cyber agencies named Shahid Kaveh, a cyber offensive unit tied to the Revolutionary Guards, as responsible, along with three alleged associates. French prosecutors have requested international arrest warrants for the perpetrators. The French announcement came shortly after Reuters reported private suspicion of Iran's involvement in the attacks, which were traced back to Iranian hackers through digital infrastructure analysis and Farsi traces.

The sabotage of European supermarkets came after a similar incident in the United States in August, where refrigerators in at least six military commissaries went offline, prompting Pentagon investigators to treat the malfunctions as a suspected cyberattack.