French officials on Monday accused Iran’s Revolutionary Guards of responsibility for the cyberattacks that knocked out commercial refrigerators and freezers across France last month, saying there would be consequences for Iran.
The hacks that struck hundreds of French supermarkets in early October were among the most disruptive cyberattacks of the Iran war that began in February, a conflict that has been marked by scattered incidents of alleged digital disruption.
These have included hacks against the Los Angeles transport system in March, against US water treatment plants in July and against ships bound for the United States in August.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not respond to messages seeking comment. Iran routinely denies carrying out malicious cyber operations.
The French announcement was made only minutes after Reuters revealed that investigators privately suspected Iran of being behind the attacks.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said the Iranian ambassador had been summoned to France’s foreign ministry.
Barrot also threatened further EU sanctions against Iran.
Fridges overheated and food destroyed
The October 11 cyberattack, which overrode the temperature controls on commercial fridges in hundreds of establishments, appeared to have been easy to pull off, cybersecurity experts previously told Reuters.
The firm behind many of the stricken units said that several were obsolete or were running outdated firmware, which could have made it easy for hackers to break in.
The effects were still dramatic. Some refrigerators had the temperature turned up so high they caught fire. In the hours after the hack, supermarket employees carted boxes full of perished meat and melted ice cream into giant rubbish bins.
The attack’s total costs could add up to tens of millions of euros nationwide, one French supermarket owner estimated.
Reuters could not establish exactly how the French made their determination.
Second wave hits blood banks
The October hacks were followed this month by a second wave of hacking that hit more than 100 establishments across Europe and even affected refrigerators used by French blood banks, prompting employees there to move some of the blood to different cold storage units.
The seemingly straightforward nature of the refrigerator hacks, and their repetition across multiple countries, prompted speculation about who might be responsible amid ongoing concerns over Russia’s suspected sabotage campaign in Europe, the war between the US and Iran and the global rise of AI-powered cyberattacks.
Similar incident at US military bases
The sabotage of European supermarket refrigerators was preceded by a similar incident in the United States.
In August, refrigerators at at least half a dozen US military commissaries stopped working in what Pentagon investigators suspect was a cyberattack, Reuters reported last month.
US investigators reportedly consider Iran a suspect in the incident and are working with French officials to establish what happened. However, the investigation remains ongoing, and Reuters could not independently establish whether the US military incidents were linked to the hacking campaign in France or other refrigeration disruptions reported across Europe.
The Pentagon said it was aware of reports about a potential cyber incident but declined to comment further, citing security reasons.
