France threatens Iran with further sanctions after cyber attacks

France is considering further punitive measures against Tehran following cyber attacks on cooling systems, among other things, that were allegedly controlled from Iran. After summoning the Iranian embassy and a meeting with the Secretary General of the Foreign Ministry, Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot announced that in addition to new European sanctions, there could also be others "that we will not talk about publicly."

The aim is to "stop anyone in Iran or elsewhere who might come up with the idea of ​​imitating this," Barrot told France Info. The previous evening, the government in Paris accused a cyber unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard of being responsible for the October hacker attacks on cooling systems at 700 locations in France. Tehran regularly denies being responsible for cyberattacks.

Investigations into further cyber attacks are ongoing

Those responsible must be punished, said Barrot. He could not say whether further cyber attacks in France, for example on the blood donation service's cooling system as well as on a regional bank and the tax authority, were also attributable to Iran: "The investigation is ongoing." It is the first time that France has experienced a cyber attack with the aim of sabotage on this scale.

According to prosecutors, the hackers took web-controlled control of cooling systems in supermarkets in France on the night of October 12 and set them to very high temperatures. At the same time, they switched off alarm systems. In some cases, the temperature was turned up so high that the devices caught fire. Supermarket employees threw away crates of spoiled meat and melted ice cream.

In addition to France, Germany and numerous other European countries were also affected by such cyber attacks.

The French public prosecutor's office is investigating fraudulent access to a data processing system "to serve a foreign power, namely Iran." The judiciary is targeting a cyber unit called Shahid Kaweh, which is affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard. International arrest warrants were requested against their bosses.