Hacker attack on supermarket refrigerators, France opens investigation: "Iran hypothesis"

Iran could be behind the hacker attacks that crashed refrigerators and freezers in France. The French judiciary suspects this and has decided to open an investigation into the head of the Iranian group Shahid Kaveh, i.e. the cyber unit of the Pasdaran, suspected of being the hand behind the cyber attacks that knocked out the refrigeration systems of supermarkets throughout the country. The judicial investigation concerns the leader of the group, "his two deputies and any other individual who can be identified", announced Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau.

According to the French secret services, the attack "launched on the night between 11 and 12 October against several hundred supermarkets and their refrigeration systems" is to be attributed "to the cybernetic center of the Revolutionary Guard Corps of the Islamic Republic of Iran", as reported by a source close to the dossier, cited by Le Figaro. Also according to the French newspaper, the J3 section of the Paris Prosecutor's Office, specialized in the fight against cybercrime, has started investigations into the case. France is the first among the countries that have recently suffered cyber attacks against refrigeration systems or the cold chain, including Italy, the United Kingdom, Germany and Portugal, to launch an investigation.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot also confirmed what was announced by the Paris prosecutor Beccuau, who, on the sidelines of the G7 in Paris, spoke of "an extremely serious campaign". Barrot then thanked on his behalf and that of the entire government the state services which, with their work, were able "to confirm that the responsibility for this attack lies with the Revolutionary Guard Corps of the Islamic Republic of Iran. This is an offensive of unprecedented scale and aggressiveness". What occurred on the night between 11 and 12 October was, as the Foreign Minister recalled, "the first large-scale cyber attack, aimed at sabotage, affecting the national territory; it constitutes a serious damage to the interests of the Nation and the safety of French citizens. For this reason, it will not remain without consequences". Then he added: "We have obviously summoned the Iranian ambassador to France to express our firm protest against this extremely serious act. We will adopt sanctions at European level against all those responsible for this attack and we will take any other proportionate and necessary measures, public or otherwise, to respond to this attack and dissuade anyone who would like to repeat it."

The news of the opening of investigations in France against Iran was also commented on, again on the sidelines of the G7 in Paris, by the Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani who however underlined that the hacking against Italy cannot be attributed to Iran but to Russia: "Certainly the hybrid attacks concerning Italy are by pro-Russian hackers. We don't know if the government is behind it". Then he specified: "We can't talk about Russia, but they are pro-Russian hackers by their own admission. We will see who are responsible for the other attacks in Europe. They are certainly attacks that happen at the same time and evidently there is coordination."