France summons Iran's envoy over supermarket fridge cyberattacks as Tehran calls the claim 'baseless'
File photo: a frozen food aisle in a French supermarket (Novum France)France summoned Iran's ambassador on Tuesday and warned it could answer in kind after formally blaming Iran's Revolutionary Guard for a cyberattack that overheated refrigerators and freezers at about 700 supermarkets across France last month. Tehran rejected the accusation as "baseless and hostile."
The attack struck on the night of Oct. 11-12, when hackers took remote control of the temperature-management software used by major retailers, switching on defrost cycles and driving temperatures sharply upward — in some cases to about 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit). Tons of fresh and frozen food were spoiled, and at least 15 fires broke out, French officials said. Chains hit included Système U, Intermarché and its Netto discount stores, E.Leclerc and Carrefour, along with butcher shops, a slaughterhouse and food-processing plants.
On Monday, Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said France had established "with certainty" that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was behind the attack, calling it "an attack of unprecedented scale and unprecedented aggressiveness" and the first large-scale cyberattack carried out for sabotage purposes on French territory. Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau opened a judicial investigation into the head of Shahid Kaveh, a cyber unit linked to the Revolutionary Guard, and two of his deputies, and requested international arrest warrants. A French intelligence report named the three men as Hamid Reza Lashgarian, Mahdi Lashgarian and Reza Salarvand.
The prosecutor's office said investigators traced the attack through the use of Farsi and IP addresses pointing to devices located in Iran. France has not published the full technical evidence behind its attribution.
Iran's Foreign Ministry on Tuesday dismissed the accusation, saying it was intended to divert attention from France's "destructive policies toward Iran," and warned that Tehran "will not hesitate to take necessary and appropriate measures" to protect its interests. Barrot, speaking Tuesday, said the Revolutionary Guard would "obviously" deny responsibility because "they fear the response that we could make, and that we will make." He warned that Paris could respond with cyber measures of its own and that further action "would not be disclosed." France also said it will seek sanctions at the European level against those responsible.
A similar wave of refrigeration attacks hit supermarkets in Sweden, Belgium, Ireland and other European countries in early November, though it remains unclear whether those incidents are connected to the one in France, and no one has claimed responsibility for them. Reuters described the French supermarket hacks as among the most disruptive cyberattacks since the war with Iran began in February, a conflict marked by sporadic episodes of suspected digital sabotage.
Sources: CNN, "France blames Iran for 'unprecedented' supermarket fridge cyberattack" (Nov. 10, 2026); Reuters, "France summons Iran envoy over supermarket fridge hack, warns of response" (Nov. 10, 2026); Agence France-Presse, "France vows tough response to freezer cyberattack blamed on Iran" (Nov. 10, 2026).
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