France vows tough response to freezer cyberattack blamed on Iran

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot declared Tuesday that Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was responsible for a significant cyberattack on numerous supermarket refrigerators in October. The minister ruled out no possible response to the attack, announcing that Iran's ambassador would be summoned and European-level sanctions would be pursued.

Barrot stated, "I can also tell you that we rule nothing out and will take all measures – including those we may not disclose publicly – that we deem proportionate and necessary to deter any further attacks." The primary objective, according to Barrot, is to deter any potential threat of future attacks from Iran or other sources.

He described the October 11-12 cyberattacks as "unprecedented in both scale and level of aggression," causing hundreds of French supermarkets to overheat and discard large quantities of perishable food. Subsequent incidents in other European countries prompted Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau to open an investigation into Shahid Kaveh, an obscure cyber unit of the IRGC, on November 2.

The prosecutor's office has called for the issuance of international arrest warrants for two Shahid Kaveh officials.