File photo: View of empty refrigerators at the frozen food aisle inside an Intermarche supermarket in Paris the day after a cyberattack targeted refrigeration systems at French supermarket chains, causing food losses and fires at several stores
The October 11 attack appeared relatively easy to execute, cybersecurity experts had earlier told Reuters. The attacks were followed this month by another wave of hacking that affected more than 100 establishments across Europe, including refrigeration units used by French blood banks. The announcement came shortly after a Reuters report revealed that French investigators privately suspected Iran of being behind the attacks. Similar incidents were reported in the United States before the French attacks.
French foreign minister Jean-Noël Barrot said the Iranian ambassador had been summoned to the foreign ministry and threatened further European Union sanctions against Iran. The manufacturer of several affected units said some were obsolete or running outdated firmware, potentially leaving them vulnerable to hackers. The attacks, which struck hundreds of supermarkets in early October, overrode temperature controls on commercial refrigeration units, causing food to rot and, in some cases, refrigerators to catch fire. But Tehran has routinely denied conducting malicious cyber operations. Staff were forced to move some blood supplies to alternative cold-storage facilities. The incidents have raised questions about the wider campaign and its possible links to other suspected cyber operations amid the ongoing US-Iran war, concerns over Russian sabotage in Europe and the growing use of artificial intelligence in cyberattacks. In August, refrigerators at at least half a dozen military commissaries stopped working. The Pentagon is treating the malfunctions as a suspected cyberattack and has been working with French officials to investigate possible links. You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.
French officials on Monday accused Iran’s Revolutionary Guards of carrying out cyberattacks that disrupted commercial refrigerators and freezers across France last month, warning that Tehran would face consequences.