France Accuses Iran’s Revolutionary Guard of Attack on About 700 Supermarkets, Summons Iranian Ambassador
Key Facts
France accused Iran of being behind a cyberattack targeting French interests on its territory and summoned the Iranian ambassador to the Foreign Ministry to protest, in a diplomatic escalation following the attack on retail stores. Investigators in Paris said Iran’s Revolutionary Guard was behind the operation, according to the Associated Press. Reuters reported on November 9 that French officials suspected state-backed Iranian hackers carried out the attacks on commercial refrigerators and freezers in France during the previous month. France’s Foreign Ministry described the attacks as "unacceptable" and said they targeted French interests. The accusation puts retail’s operational infrastructure at the center of a security dispute between Paris and Tehran.
The attack took place on October 12 and affected about 700 of France’s 10,000 supermarkets, according to an estimate cited by the Associated Press. The attacks raised the temperature of refrigeration units, threatening food safety and disrupting store operations. Reuters said temperatures in refrigerators and freezers at some stores rose to 50 degrees Celsius, with fires breaking out and food spoiling. Les Mousquetaires, the group that owns Intermarché stores, said refrigeration units at about 150 of its stores reached that temperature for six hours overnight. The group added that affected food was destroyed to avoid health risks.
The head of Intermarché called the attack "unprecedented" and estimated losses across France at tens of millions of euros in a single day. The estimate reflects the potential impact of refrigeration system outages in a sector that depends on preserving food and turning over inventory daily. The Associated Press said reports on the incident cited spoiled food and fires at some stores. The risks went beyond physical damage; disposing of affected food was a precaution to protect consumers. The events show how targeting connected store operating equipment can quickly turn a technical fault into a business disruption.
In its report published on November 9, Reuters said Iran typically denies carrying out malicious cyber operations and that its mission to the United Nations did not respond to a request for comment on the case. The report said some of the affected refrigeration units were old or running outdated fixed software, which may have made them easier to breach. In a subsequent wave, stores in eight European countries were hit by attacks on refrigeration systems, and large quantities of food were destroyed. The European Union Agency for Cybersecurity said the developments underscored the importance of cooperation among countries, information sharing and coordinated responses. The attacks showed that vulnerabilities in connected systems can extend beyond a single company or market.
European companies took precautionary steps after the subsequent attacks. Swedish supermarket chain Coop said it was moving its systems from fourth-generation connections to fifth-generation networks and newer modems. Danfoss, a refrigeration systems provider, also recommended against making those systems directly accessible over the internet. In the United Kingdom, authorities raised the alert level, according to the head of the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre. The official warned that similar disruptions could become more frequent as technology ages and fails to keep pace with hackers’ evolving capabilities.