Iran Rejects French Claims It Ran Supermarket Fridge Cyberattack; Paris Summons Ambassador

On Tuesday, Iran's Foreign Ministry put out a statement that was blunt even by the standards of diplomatic rebuttals. It said it "categorically rejects" what it called baseless and one-sided French accusations that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was behind a cyberattack on supermarkets across France. The statement came on the same day Paris summoned Tehran's ambassador to discuss the matter.

The attack in question began overnight on October 11-12. According to French prosecutors, it targeted about 700 of the country's roughly 10,000 supermarkets. Attackers used web interfaces to trigger abnormal, indefinite defrost cycles in refrigeration units, and they also disabled the automated alerts meant to sound when temperatures climb past set thresholds. Temperatures rose, produce spoiled, and in isolated cases fires broke out.

Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said on Monday that she had opened an investigation into leading members of Shahid Kaveh. She described it as an offensive cyber unit affiliated with the Electronic and Cyber Center of the IRGC, the multi-force military body that answers directly to Iran's religious leadership. Her office has requested arrest warrants for two Shahid Kaveh officials and is looking at others. French cyber intelligence agencies said the unit runs large-scale campaigns against industrial equipment for the purpose of sabotage, mainly aimed at Israel and the US but also at France and other European countries.

Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot spoke on Tuesday as a G7 foreign ministers' meeting was under way in Paris. He said France would "rule nothing out" and would take all measures it considers proportionate and necessary to deter further attacks, including ones it may not disclose publicly. The aim, he said, is to deter anyone tempted to try again, in Iran or elsewhere. France also said it will seek sanctions at the European level.

The EU said it would pursue a "swift and united response" once member states have discussed it. Spokesman Anouar El Anouni said the bloc has consistently urged all states to refrain from malicious behavior in cyberspace and will use every tool available, including sanctions under its cyber diplomacy toolbox.

The meeting also covered the conflict with Iran, and Barrot said discussions with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had taken up much of the previous two days. He noted that the Trump administration's tone has shifted since its midterm election defeat, but said the risk of renewed escalation with Iran cannot be excluded. Otherwise, he said, France would not have devoted so much time and energy to the subject with its American counterpart.

Tehran's reply was sharp. It accused France of "merely projecting its own governance failures" and mocked the government: "A government that cannot even manage the temperature of its own refrigerators now seeks to shift the blame onto foreign actors." It also signaled it could retaliate if sanctions go ahead, saying it would not hesitate to take necessary and appropriate measures to safeguard its national interests and security against unlawful foreign activities.

The October incident has not stood alone. Similar episodes have followed in Europe and beyond, including a failed attempt this month to attack cooling units at French blood banks. It is not yet clear whether these are connected to the original attack. Sweden's Civil Defense Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin said he could not yet say whether hacks aimed at Swedish supermarkets last week were linked, partly because this type of sabotage would have been easy to copy once the first reports appeared in October. He warned that more attacks should be expected in the coming months as AI tools make it easier to find and exploit vulnerabilities.

What to watch now is whether the arrest warrants are issued and whether EU member states agree on sanctions, and whether Iran follows its warning with action of its own.