France has summoned Iran’s ambassador in Paris after accusing an Iranian military-linked cyber unit of carrying out an attack on supermarket refrigeration systems. Iran has rejected the accusation, calling it baseless.
The French foreign ministry said the summons took place on the morning of 10 November, a day after France publicly attributed the October disruption to Iran. The meeting was intended to convey a strong protest over the alleged attack.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot has also said that Paris will seek European Union sanctions in response. The French government says it could take additional measures, including steps it might not disclose publicly.
These are proposed or possible responses. The announcement does not mean that new European sanctions over the supermarket attack have already been imposed.
A disputed attribution
In a statement dated 9 November, the French government said an offensive cyber unit known as Shahid Kaveh was responsible. It described the unit as affiliated with the electronic warfare and cyber defence organisation of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Iran’s foreign ministry rejected the French allegation on 10 November and described it as baseless. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi separately accused the French government of shifting blame for its own failures on to others.
The two governments’ positions remain opposed. France’s attribution is an official allegation, not a finding of guilt, and Iran denies responsibility.
Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said an investigation had been opened into the cyber unit. The prosecutor’s office has requested international arrest warrants in the case. A request for a warrant is not itself proof that a suspect committed an offence.
Prosecutors cited the use of Farsi and internet protocol addresses associated with devices in Iran among the indications examined. Barrot has said he would not disclose how the government reached its conclusion. Identifying who is behind a cyberattack can be difficult because an attacker’s apparent location may be concealed.
What happened to the refrigeration systems
The French government says the attack targeted refrigeration controls at more than 700 retail sites in France during the night of 11 to 12 October. The supermarkets affected included stores belonging to Coopérative U, Intermarché, Carrefour, Monoprix and E.Leclerc.
Prosecutors said the attackers used online interfaces to start abnormal defrost cycles and disable temperature alerts. The software used at affected stores allowed refrigeration units to be managed remotely.
Higher temperatures spoiled food that needed to be kept chilled or frozen. The French government said the incidents also caused fires and estimated the value of spoiled food at tens of millions of euros. That figure is a government estimate, not an independently established final loss.
French cyber and intelligence agencies published a joint assessment on 9 November that attributed attacks against French interests to Iranian units linked to the Revolutionary Guard. Their public summary included the October refrigeration incident.
Wider diplomatic context
Relations between France and Iran have been strained over issues including Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programmes. In an earlier dispute, France said Iranian security services detained two French embassy employees in Tehran in July. Iran later said the employees would not be allowed to return, and France announced the expulsion of two Iranian embassy employees in August.
Other European countries reported disruptions to supermarket refrigeration systems in early November. It is not known whether those incidents are linked to the October attack in France, and the French allegation should not be treated as an attribution of those separate incidents.
