France has publicly blamed Iran for the supermarket fridge cyberattack that spoiled food at hundreds of retailers last month, and says it will seek sanctions in response. Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot told reporters on Monday that the hacking of refrigeration systems across French stores was an attack “of unprecedented scale and unprecedented aggressiveness,” and the Paris prosecutor’s office said it had opened an investigation into a cyber unit affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
France summons Iran’s ambassador over the supermarket fridge cyberattack
Barrot said the supermarket fridge cyberattack “marks the first large-scale cyber-attack aimed at sabotage on our national territory, and it constitutes a major attack on the nation’s interests and the security of the French people,” according to the BBC. Speaking to reporters, he also described it as “a major assault on the nation’s interests and on the security of the French people,” CNN reported.
The French government has summoned Iran’s ambassador to Paris to “lodge a very strong protest against this extremely grave act,” Barrot said. He added that France intends to impose retaliatory sanctions “at a European level,” and that it would take “any other necessary and proportionate measures” to respond to the incident and “deter anyone who might seek to repeat it.”
There was no immediate comment from Tehran on the French allegations, CNN reported. The BBC said Iran had yet to respond officially, but that some Iranian media outlets have dismissed the allegations as baseless. Follow further developments in our News coverage.
Defrost cycles switched on overnight
The attack took place on 11 October, when hackers gained control of the software that regulates the temperatures of the refrigeration units used in many of France’s supermarkets, according to the BBC. The intruders remotely connected to supermarket refrigerators and freezers and then raised their temperature by switching on defrost cycles, CNN affiliate BFMTV reported.
The consequences were immediate and physical. Large quantities of fresh and frozen produce were lost, and some of the refrigeration equipment even caught fire, according to BFMTV. In some stores, temperatures of the fridges reportedly rose to 50C (120F) overnight, the BBC said. CNN reported that produce was spoiled at around 700 retailers.
More than 100 of Coopérative U’s supermarkets were hit, along with 180 stores from Intermarché and its Netto brand, the BBC reported. Other major food retailers including Carrefour, Monoprix and E.Leclerc were also affected. The attack targeted software provided by the Danish engineering firm Danfoss, which allows retailers to manage their cold units remotely.
Paris prosecutor opens investigation into Shahid Kaveh
The Paris prosecutor’s office took up the case and on Monday accused Iran of being behind the attack, citing “the use of Farsi and IP addresses pointing to devices located in Iran,” CNN reported.
Prosecutor Laure Beccuau said an investigation had been opened into the head of an offensive cyber unit associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, as well as his two deputies. She named the unit as Shahid Kaveh, which she said had an affiliation with the electronic and cyber centre of the IRGC. The prosecutor’s office said the investigation also covers any other individuals responsible. Shahid Kaveh is the name given to a cluster of hackers thought to be directly employed by the Iranian regime, according to the BBC.
A second wave of freezer hacks across Europe
Earlier this month a second wave of hacks took place, hitting more than 100 stores across Europe, the BBC reported. Supermarkets in Belgium and Luxembourg were affected, while a smaller number of shops were hit in countries including Sweden, Ireland, the Netherlands, Estonia and Finland. CNN reported that the similar attack targeted supermarkets in Sweden, Belgium and Ireland.
It is not known whether the two sets of incidents are linked. No one has claimed responsibility for this month’s cyberattacks in other European countries, CNN said. The BBC reported that a pair of Russian-aligned hacktivist groups claimed on Wednesday that they were responsible, but few believed them.
Separately, in August a small number of US military bases had fridges mysteriously malfunction, spoiling food. That incident is also being investigated as deliberate cyberattacks, Reuters has reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.
Attribution questions and Iran’s deterrence debate
The French government has not said how it reached the conclusion that Iran was responsible, and attribution of cyberattacks is extremely hard because hackers are able to hide their locations, the BBC reported. Since the waves of attacks on freezers, experts have been speculating about which hacking groups could be responsible, with Iran among the potential suspects. More reporting on the supermarket fridge cyberattack and its fallout is available on the NarwhalTV homepage.
In recent weeks, a number of commentators and politicians in Iran have argued that the country should extend any retaliation beyond the Middle East if the United States and Israel resume the war they started earlier this year, according to the BBC. If the IRGC carried out the cyberattacks, it remains unclear whether they were part of Iran’s deterrence strategy.
Shortly after the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran in late February, the US intelligence community issued a flurry of private warnings to American companies and government agencies urging vigilance amid the threat of possible cyberattacks from Iran, CNN reported, citing national security sources and memos it reviewed.
