France Attributes a Cyberattack on Supermarket Refrigeration Systems to Iran's Revolutionary Guard; Tehran Calls the Accusation Baseless

Status: France has officially attributed the October attacks to an IRGC-affiliated unit. Iran has denied the accusation. Neither finding has been tested in court, and cyber attribution is inherently disputed.

In a statement dated Nov. 10, France said that on the night of Oct. 11-12 a campaign of cyberattacks "targeted the supermarket refrigeration system controls of more than 700 retail sites in France," causing "significant material damage, sparking fires and spoiling foodstuffs estimated to be worth tens of millions of euros." The government called the campaign "unprecedented in its scale and level of aggressiveness" and "the first offensive cyber campaign carried out purely for the purposes of sabotage on French soil."

France said that, after investigations, it attributed the attacks to Shahid Kaveh, "an offensive cyber unit affiliated with the Electronic Warfare and Cyber Defence Organization of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps." Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, as quoted by the BBC, said those responsible would be hit with sanctions and that the attack "marks the first large-scale cyber-attack aimed at sabotage on our national territory, and it constitutes a major attack on the nation's interests and the security of the French people."

France said it would summon Iran's ambassador in Paris "in order to express its condemnation of these cyber attacks in the strongest terms" and would propose that European partners adopt further sanctions against Iranian entities and individuals involved. The BBC, citing Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau, reported that an investigation had been opened into the head of the Shahid Kaveh unit and two deputies. The BBC also reported that more than 100 Coopérative U stores and 180 Intermarché and Netto stores were among those affected, and that other retailers including Carrefour, Monoprix, and E.Leclerc were hit, in an attack that targeted software used to manage cold units remotely. In some stores, the BBC said, refrigerator temperatures were reported to have risen to 50 degrees Celsius (120 Fahrenheit) overnight.

On Tuesday, Iran's foreign ministry described the French accusation as "baseless and hostile," the BBC reported. The BBC noted that attribution of cyberattacks is extremely difficult because attackers can conceal their locations, and that France has not made public the full technical basis for its conclusion. A joint report by French technical services was released alongside the attribution; AFNS has not independently audited that report.

This story reports both the French attribution and the Iranian denial. It does not treat responsibility as a settled fact.