France Blames Iran for Cyberattacks That Spoiled Food and Sparked Fires at 700 Supermarkets

France has publicly blamed Iran for attacks on refrigeration controllers at more than 700 grocery stores in October. According to a report from France's Cyber Crisis Coordination Centre (C4), the incidents spoiled food, caused losses in the tens of millions of euros and started at least 15 fires. Affected groups included Casino, Leclerc, Coopérative U, Metro, Carrefour and Intermarché. France has vowed to respond using "all available means of response."

The C4 report and a statement from France's Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs attribute the attacks to the Shahid Kaveh cyber unit of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The unit is better known by hacktivist personas including CyberAv3ngers. The ministry described the campaign as "the first cyber offensive campaign carried out purely for the purpose of sabotage on national territory", and said it was unprecedented in scale and aggressiveness.

The same group is suspected of involvement in July attacks on more than 100 internet-exposed water systems in the United States. The US government has not attributed those intrusions to any country or group, though private-sector analysts have blamed Iran. The group has reportedly been breaking into industrial controllers for years. For businesses, the case shows that attacks on operational equipment such as refrigeration can cause physical damage and financial loss, not just data theft.