France blames Iran for cyberattack that hacked supermarket refrigerators across the country
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot on Monday accused Iran's Revolutionary Guards of being behind a recent cyberattack on French supermarket fridges, saying there would be consequences for the country.
France cyberattack was followed by a more widespread European wave of attacks several days later
Thomson Reuters
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French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot on Monday accused Iran's Revolutionary Guards of being behind a recent cyberattack on French supermarket refrigerators, saying there would be consequences for the country.
Meanwhile, the Paris prosecutor's office said it had requested international arrest warrants against the leader of Shahid Kaveh, an offensive cyber unit affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards, and his two deputies.
The Oct. 11 cyberattack, which overrode the temperature controls on commercial fridges in hundreds of establishments, appeared to have been easy to pull off, cybersecurity experts previously told Reuters. The firm behind many of the stricken units said that several were obsolete or were running outdated firmware, which could have made it easy for hackers to break in.
The effects were still dramatic. Some refrigerators had the temperature turned up so high they caught fire. In the hours following the hack, supermarket employees carted boxes full of perished meat and melted ice cream into giant trash containers.
WATCH | Some appliances reach temperatures of 20 C in hack:
Hackers target European supermarket fridges, millions in spoiled food tossed
November 2|
Duration
2:09
Supermarkets across Europe threw away millions of dollars in spoiled food after a cyberattack targeted fridges and freezers causing temperatures to soar. It follows a similar attack in France last month.The attack's total costs could add up to tens of millions of euros countrywide, one French supermarket owner estimated.
The hacks were followed this month by a second wave of hacking that hit more than 100 establishments across Europe and even affected refrigerators used by French blood banks, prompting employees there to have to move some of the blood to different cold storage units.
The seemingly straightforward nature of the refrigerator hacks — and their repetition across multiple countries — prompted speculation about who might be responsible amid ongoing concerns over Russia's suspected sabotage campaign in Europe, the war between the U.S. and Iran and the global rise of AI-powered cyberattacks.
The sabotage of European supermarket fridges was preceded by at least one similar incident in the United States.
In August, refrigerators in at least half a dozen military commissaries went out of commission. Pentagon investigators are treating the malfunctions as a suspected cyberattack and are working with French officials to get to the bottom of what happened, Reuters reported last month.
Another cyberattack on supermarket fridges sweeps Europe, leaving food spoiled
Cyberattack defrosts French supermarket freezers, spoiling food at 100s of stores
Reuters could not independently establish whether there was any link between the refrigeration incidents at U.S. military bases in August, the hacking campaign in France and the more recent wave of refrigeration hacks that struck Europe.
The Pentagon said on Monday that it is "aware of speculation regarding a potential cyber incident" but that military investigators were on the case and it could not offer further comment for security reasons.
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