France: Iran's Revolutionary Guards cyberattack on supermarket refrigerators

France pointed to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as the mastermind behind a cyber attack that raised the temperature of refrigerators in hundreds of supermarkets across the country last month.

According to Reuters and AFP, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barro said on the 9th (local time), "I can confirm that Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps carried out this attack."

In the middle of last month, 700 supermarkets from various companies across France suffered a cyber attack that caused refrigerator temperatures to rise above 50 degrees.

Minister Baro said, "This attack is of unprecedented scale and level," and criticized, "It is the first large-scale cyber attack in history aimed at sabotaging our homeland, and it is an attack on national interests and the security of the French people."

“We will enforce sanctions at the European level against all those responsible for this attack,” he said. “We will take all necessary and proportionate measures to respond to this incident and deter anyone who seeks to repeat it.”

Minister Baro added that the Foreign Ministry had summoned Iran's ambassador to France to "protest very strongly against this extremely serious act."

The Paris Prosecutor's Office announced that it had begun an investigation into the Revolutionary Guard.

"We have begun an investigation into the head of Shahid Qabeh, a cyber attack unit linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Electronic and Cyber ​​Center (IRGC-CEC), his two subordinates and other identifiable individuals," Paris Prosecutor General Laure Vequio said.

"Our response must be very strong," Kaya Callas, the European Union's high representative for foreign affairs and security, said in response to a question about this.

Iran's mission to the United Nations did not respond to inquiries, and Reuters reported that Iran normally denies such malicious cyber operations.

After a cyberattack on supermarket refrigerators in France, similar attacks occurred across Europe in other countries on the 2nd of this month. Additionally, a cyber attack occurred in France that raised the temperature of a blood product storage facility at a blood center to extremely high temperatures.

This occurred at a time when concerns were growing about Russia's hybrid attacks on Europe, security concerns surrounding war in the Middle East, and artificial intelligence (AI)-based cyber attacks.

Also, last August, refrigerators malfunctioned at at least six military bases in the United States. Citing sources, Reuters reported that the U.S. Department of Defense also suspects Iran as behind the hacking.

On this day, the U.S. Department of Defense said, "We are aware that there is speculation about a possible cyber incident," and said that as the military investigation is ongoing, it would not comment further for security reasons.