The French government says 700 food distribution sites were impacted.
PARIS — French Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean-Noël Barrot said Iran was behind the recent series of “unprecedented” cyberattacks on refrigerators in several major supermarket chains in the country last month.
“Thanks to the outstanding work of the government departments, I am able to confirm that responsibility for this attack lies with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards,” Barrot told reporters Monday at a G7 meeting in Paris. “We will impose sanctions at European level against those responsible.”
Barrot said that 700 food distribution sites in France were impacted in the cyberattack. French prosecutors said shortly after that they were opening an investigation into the hacks.
Though Barrot was only referring to the incidents reported in France, grocery stores across Europe and even French blood banks have been targeted by hackers in recent days. Cyber experts had previously raised concerns that the attacks may have been part of Russia’s ongoing hybrid warfare against Europe, though the Kremlin has denied any involvement.
In a statement, a spokesperson for France’s foreign affairs ministry said the French investigation found that Iran’s cyber unit, Shahid Kaveh, carried out the destructive attacks. Shahid Kaveh, which is linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, carries out offensive cyber operations.
The French investigation will focus on the unit’s head, the Paris prosecutor’s office said in a statement, adding that about 20 fires had been started because of the cyberattack.
“The attackers took remote control of the equipment via web interfaces to trigger abnormal defrost cycles of unlimited duration, while disabling the security alerts on the sensors that were supposed to activate once a certain temperature was exceeded,” it added.
“We just heard now that [the cyberattacks] were attributed to Iran,” European Council President Kaja Kallas said after Barrot’s statement, adding that the matter would be discussed at next week’s European foreign affairs council. If the attribution is confirmed, she said, “[Europe’s] response should be strong.”
The European Commission is also looking into these cyberattacks, which EU Agriculture and Food Commissioner Christophe Hansen described as a “deliberate attempt to disrupt our food supply chain.”
Iran’s foreign affairs ministry and its embassy in Paris did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This story has been updated.