Iran-linked cyberattack on French supermarket refrigeration systems, Digi Mart USA News: France says it “ne s’interdit rien,” meaning it will not rule out any measure, in its response to Iran following cyberattacks on supermarket refrigeration equipment, Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said Tuesday.
France accused Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on Monday of being behind the large-scale cyberattacks, which hit hundreds of connected supermarket refrigerators in October. Barrot said the attack was of an unprecedented scale and aggressiveness and that France had summoned Iran’s ambassador to protest.
He promised sanctions “at the European level” against those responsible.
Barrot made the remarks on the sidelines of a meeting of G7 foreign ministers in Paris. U.S.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, also in Paris, said France was not really involved in the conflict between the United States and Iran.
Judicial investigating magistrates were assigned Monday to a probe that names the leader of the Iranian group Shahid Kaveh, described as an offensive cyber unit affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards’ cyber center, along with his two deputies, according to Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau.
Beccuau said the attack struck refrigeration controllers from the brands Danfoss and Dixemm on the night of October 11 to 12, affecting about 700 supermarket sites in France. It caused significant food losses and about twenty fires, she said.
Investigators found a characteristic attack method, including the use of Farsi and IP addresses linked to terminals located in Iran, Beccuau said. The national cyber crisis coordination center (C4), which includes the national cybersecurity agency ANSSI and the foreign intelligence service DGSE, cited a body of evidence pointing to the Revolutionary Guards as the sponsor and Shahid Kaveh as the executor.
C4 said the techniques had been used by the unit since at least April 2026 and that the operation was promoted on the CyberbanNews propaganda outlet on October 13, 2026.
According to the investigation by the Office anticybercriminalité (OFAC) and the General Directorate for Internal Security (DGSI), attackers took remote control of the equipment through web interfaces, triggered abnormal defrost cycles of unlimited duration and disabled safety alerts that should have activated above a certain temperature.
Barrot called it the first large-scale cyberattack for sabotage purposes on French territory and a major attack on the nation’s interests and the security of French citizens.
In early November, supermarkets in Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Sweden were also hit by hacking attacks that caused their refrigerator temperatures to rise. Specialist media had pointed to two pro-Russian hacker groups, NoName057(16) and Z-Pentest, which the Kremlin denied being involved with on November 5.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, informed Monday along with G7 counterparts that the attack on French refrigerators had been attributed to Iran, said the issue would be discussed at the Foreign Affairs Council next Monday, adding that attributed cyber incidents in Europe call for a strong response.
The attribution comes amid a confrontation between the United States and Iran that has raised fears of a new escalation since Israeli-American strikes began on February 28. Iran is regularly accused of using asymmetric means to achieve its aims.
