French officials announced on Monday that Iran's Revolutionary Guards were behind the cyber sabotage that wrecked commercial refrigeration across France last month. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot confirmed that the Iranian ambassador had been summoned to France's foreign ministry, while also threatening additional EU sanctions.
Rotten meat, melted ice cream and fires
The October 11 cyberattacks hit hundreds of supermarkets, causing intense chaos. Temperatures in some units were turned up so drastically that at least 15 fires broke out. Workers had to dump ruined meat and melted ice cream into huge bins, with one French supermarket owner calculating nationwide losses in the tens of millions of euros.
A joint report by French intelligence and cyber agencies revealed that 700 commercial premises were hit, including supermarkets, butcher shops, food processing plants, and a slaughterhouse. A second wave this month hit more than 100 locations across Europe and even disrupted French blood banks, forcing staff to quickly shift blood bags to other cold storage.
“aware of speculation regarding a potential cyber incident”The Pentagon
Unit tied to Revolutionary Guards named
Officials directly accused Shahid Kaveh, identified as an offensive cyber unit linked to the Revolutionary Guards. The report named three alleged associates: Hamid Reza Lashgarian, Mahdi Lashgarian, and Reza Salarvand. French authorities stated the operation used front groups like "CyberAveng3rs" and "Cyber Isnaad Front."
Paris prosecutors have now sought international arrest warrants. Investigators linked Shahid Kaveh by analysing the digital network, spotting intrusion patterns, and finding traces of Farsi. Meanwhile, in the United States, Pentagon investigators are looking into an August incident where refrigerators in at least six military commissaries failed, with Iran treated as a suspect.
