France has attributed October’s supermarket refrigeration attack to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and summoned Iran’s ambassador. Prosecutors are investigating leaders of a cyber unit they associate with the Guards. The attack spoiled food across several retail chains; Paris is seeking European sanctions while keeping the technical basis for its attribution undisclosed.
France on November 9 attributed October’s supermarket refrigeration attack to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a branch of Iran’s armed forces. Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said the Iranian ambassador would be summoned.[1], [2]
Barrot called for sanctions at European level. France has not released the technical evidence underlying its attribution, and Iran had not responded when the BBC published its account.[1]
Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau announced an investigation into the leader and two deputies of Shahid Kaveh, an offensive cyber unit that prosecutors link to the Revolutionary Guards’ electronic and cyber centre. The judicial investigation accompanies the government’s diplomatic protest. Barrot’s demand for European sanctions remained a request, with no new European measure announced in his statement.[1]
Hackers took over the software controlling supermarket refrigeration on October 11. The software was supplied by Danfoss, a Danish engineering company. The refrigeration attack spoiled fresh and frozen products, with retailers reporting losses of millions of euros. More than 100 Coopérative U stores and 180 Intermarché and Netto stores were affected, according to the BBC; Carrefour, Monoprix and E.Leclerc were also hit. Temperatures reportedly reached 50 degrees Celsius overnight in some shops. A further wave affected Belgium, Luxembourg and other European countries earlier this month, but its connection with the French attack remains unknown.[1]
