France blames Iran for last month’s cyberattack on supermarket refrigerators that damaged produce at about 700 retail stores, and has vowed to impose sanctions on Iran in response.
“This was an attack of unprecedented scale and unprecedented aggressiveness,” Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrault told reporters on Monday. He described it as the first major cyberattack on French soil with the purpose of sabotage.
“This is a serious attack on national interests and the security of the French people,” Barot said. France added that it would summon Iran’s ambassador and impose retaliatory sanctions “at European level.”
There was no immediate comment from Tehran on France’s claims.
According to CNN affiliate BFMTV, the October cyberattack occurred when hackers remotely connected to supermarket refrigerators and freezers and turned on the defrost cycle to increase the temperature. As a result, large amounts of fresh and frozen food were lost and some refrigeration equipment even caught fire.
The Paris public prosecutor’s office took up the case and on Monday accused Iran of being behind the attack, citing “the use of Farsi words and IP addresses pointing to devices located in Iran.”
Prosecutors announced that they have launched an investigation into Shahid Kaveh, head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ cyber unit, two of his lieutenants, and other officers.
Earlier this month, similar cyberattacks targeted supermarkets in Sweden, Belgium and Ireland, but it is unclear whether this incident is related to the incident in France. No one has claimed responsibility for the cyber attacks that occurred this month in other European countries.
Shortly after the U.S. and Israel launched attacks against Iran in late February, U.S. intelligence agencies issued a series of private warnings to U.S. companies and government agencies urging them to be on guard against the threat of possible cyberattacks from Iran, according to national security sources and memos reviewed by CNN.
This story has been updated.
