France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot has blamed Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for last month’s supermarket fridge cyberattack which spoiled fresh and frozen produce at around 700 retailers.
“This was an attack of unprecedented scale and unprecedented aggressiveness,” Barrot told reporters Monday, describing it as the first large-scale cyberattack carried out for sabotage purposes on French national territory.
“It represents a major assault on the nation’s interests and on the security of the French people,” Barrot said, adding that France intends to impose retaliatory sanctions “at a European level” and has summoned the country’s ambassador.
There was no immediate comment from Tehran on the French allegations.
The cyberattack in October occurred when hackers remotely connected to supermarket fridges and freezers, and raised their temperature by switching on defrost cycles, according to CNN affiliate BFMTV. That led to the loss of large quantities of fresh and frozen produce, and even caused some of the refrigeration equipment to catch fire.
The Paris prosecutors’ office took up the case and accused Iran of the attack in a statement on Monday, citing “the use of Farsi and IP addresses pointing to devices located in Iran.”
This is a developing story and will be updated.
