In the autumn of this year, a quiet hum of refrigerators across France turned into a crisis: cooling units that no one had touched were pushed by remote hands into endless defrost, and shelves of food spoiled before anyone understood why. Now the French state has named a suspect, Iran's Revolutionary Guards, through a unit known as Shahid Kaveh, a reminder that modern sabotage can reach into ordinary kitchens and grocery aisles as easily as into power grids. The accusation sits within an older and bitter contest between Tehran and the West, shaped by a war and by years of covert digital confli
France Blames Iran's Revolutionary Guards for Cyberattacks That Spoiled Supermarket Fridges
Numerous supermarkets were forced to throw away entire inventories of perishable food after refrigeration failed.
Remote attackers pushed the fridges into abnormal, open-ended defrost cycles
Mark
Why does a fridge hack count as a major national security event?
Mimi
Because it was sabotage, not theft. Barrot called it the first large-scale cyberattack aimed at sabotage on French soil, and about 700 sites were targeted. Some stores lost whole inventories of perishable food.
Mark
How did the attackers do it?
Mimi
The prosecutor said they took remote control through web interfaces and started abnormal, indefinite defrost cycles. The temperature alarms were switched off at the same time, so nothing warned the stores.
Luke
Who is actually saying Iran did it, though?
Mimi
The foreign minister, the Paris prosecutor, and France's cyber crisis coordination centre. Barrot said he could confirm it.
Luke
Confirm is his word. The evidence the public has seen is the prosecutor's description of Persian-language use and IP addresses tracing to terminals in Iran. Those are markers, and no one has published the full forensic case.
Mark
And the other European incidents?
Mimi
On November 2, at least nine other countries saw suspected freezer attacks. Barrot only addressed France.
Luke
Right, and that one is labelled suspected. Nothing in the reporting ties it to the IRGC. The false bomb alerts on flights are also unattributed so far.
Mark
What does France do next?
Mimi
It summoned Iran's ambassador, opened a judicial investigation into the unit's leaders, and promised European sanctions. Kallas said the response should be strong.
Luke
Promised is the key word. No sanctions have been announced yet, and Barrot also mentioned measures that may not be public.
Der Puls
- Refrigerators at roughly 700 French supermarket sites began warming on October 11 and 12, and no one was at the controls.
- Stores threw away entire stocks of perishable food after remote attackers disabled the alarms that should have flagged rising temperatures.
- Paris has named the IRGC's Shahid Kaveh unit, opened a judicial probe into its leaders, and summoned Iran's ambassador.
- Similar freezer failures hit at least nine other European countries on November 2, and the question of whether they share the same hand is still open.
- The EU is being pressed to turn France's pledge into sanctions, while Iran's denial and the shadow of Russia keep the crisis unsettled.
In the autumn of this year, a quiet hum of refrigerators across France turned into a crisis: cooling units that no one had touched were pushed by remote hands into endless defrost, and shelves of food spoiled before anyone understood why. Now the French state has named a suspect, Iran's Revolutionary Guards, through a unit known as Shahid Kaveh, a reminder that modern sabotage can reach into ordinary kitchens and grocery aisles as easily as into power grids. The accusation sits within an older and bitter contest between Tehran and the West, shaped by a war and by years of covert digital conflict, and what it will mean depends on whether words become sanctions and whether the chill spreads further.
On the weekend of October 11 and 12, refrigerators in French supermarkets began to warm up, though nobody had touched them. Remote attackers had seized the equipment and pushed it into abnormal defrost cycles that did not stop. In some stores, entire stocks of perishable food had to be thrown away. This week, France said who it believes was responsible.
Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said the attack was carried out by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. He called it unprecedented in scale and aggression, the first large-scale sabotage cyberattack on French soil, and said it targeted 700 sites. Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau opened a judicial investigation into Shahid Kaveh, an offensive cyber unit linked to the IRGC, which is better known online as CyberAveng3rs. Investigators named its leaders and pointed to technical markers: Persian language use and IP addresses traced to Iran. The attackers reached the refrigeration through web interfaces and disabled the alarms that would have warned staff of the rising temperatures.
France has summoned Iran's ambassador and promised European sanctions against those responsible. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the response should be strong. France was not alone: on November 2, grocery stores in at least nine other European countries suffered suspected freezer cyberattacks, though Barrot referred only to the French incidents.
The accusation comes against the backdrop of a war between the United States, Israel and Iran that began with the killing of Ali Khamenei in February. France also accuses Iran of spreading misinformation about recent protests. What comes next is whether the EU turns the pledge into formal sanctions, whether the ambassador's summoning leads anywhere, and whether the November freezer attacks are tied to the same unit.
On the weekend of October 11 and 12, refrigerators in French supermarkets began to warm up. Nobody had touched them. Remote attackers had taken control of the equipment and pushed it into abnormal, open-ended defrost cycles, and in some stores the result was that entire stocks of perishable food had to be thrown away. This week, France named who it believes was responsible.
Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said he could confirm the attack was carried out by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran, the IRGC. He spoke on the sidelines of a G7 foreign ministers' meeting in Paris. He called the operation unprecedented in both scale and aggression, and said it was the first large-scale cyberattack aimed at sabotage on French national territory. In his words, it was a major attack on the nation's interests and on the security of the French people. He said it targeted 700 sites.
The Paris prosecutor, Laure Beccuau, announced in a separate statement that a judicial investigation has been opened into Shahid Kaveh, which she described as an offensive cyber unit affiliated with the IRGC's Electronic and Cyber Centre. The investigation names the unit's head and his two deputies. France's cyber monitoring centre, which brings together four security agencies, said the unit is better known online as CyberAveng3rs, an avatar it has used to claim attacks before.
France's Centre for Coordination of Cyber Crises, which includes the intelligence services, named three men. Hamid Reza Lashgarian heads the cyberattacks branch of the IRGC's Electronic and Cyber Centre. Reza Salarvand and Mahdi Lashgarian lead the Shahid Kaveh operation. The agency said the unit runs large-scale campaigns against industrial equipment for sabotage, aimed mainly at Israel and the United States but also at France and other European countries. In 2024 the US Treasury sanctioned Hamid Reza Lashgarian and Mahdi Lashgarian, along with four other people, over cyberattacks, and described Hamid Reza Lashgarian as a commander in the IRGC's Quds force, which handles foreign operations.
Beccuau pointed to technical markers. A hallmark of the unit, she said, is the use of Persian and of IP addresses tracing back to terminals in Iran. The attackers reached the refrigeration equipment through web interfaces. At the same time, the alert sensors built to sound when temperatures cross a set threshold were disabled, so the warming went unflagged.
France has summoned the Iranian ambassador in Paris to deliver what Barrot called a very strong protest against an extremely grave act. He promised sanctions at the European level against all those responsible, and said France would take any other necessary and proportionate measures, public or otherwise, to respond and deter a repeat. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, speaking after him, said the response should be strong.
France was not the only target. On November 2, grocery stores in at least nine other European countries were hit by a suspected cyberattack on their freezer systems. Barrot referred directly only to the French attacks. The incidents come as officials warn of cyberattack risks from Russia while European states press for support for Ukraine. European air traffic has also been disrupted in recent days by false bomb alerts against dozens of flights, though their origin has not been established.
The backdrop is the war the United States and Israel fought against Iran, which began with the killing of supreme leader Ali Khamenei on February 28. European countries stayed out of it, but French officials have accused Iran of spreading misinformation about the protests that have shaken France over the past month. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, also in Paris for the talks, said the accusation did not surprise him, that Iran has done things like this for a very long time, and called the IRGC a deranged group of revolutionaries.
What to watch now is whether the EU turns Barrot's pledge into formal sanctions, whether the ambassador's summoning leads to anything further, and whether investigators tie the November 2 freezer attacks to the same unit.
Bemerkenswerte Zitate
I can confirm that this attack was carried out by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of the Islamic Republic of Iran.— Jean-Noel Barrot, French Foreign Minister
Our response should be strong.— Kaja Kallas, EU foreign policy chief
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