700 French grocery stores hit by Iranian cyberattack on refrigerators

A cyberattack on October 11 disrupted refrigeration systems at 700 retail locations across France, according to the Paris prosecutor's office. The intrusion forced commercial units into indefinite, abnormal defrost cycles while disabling safety alerts that trigger when temperatures exceed specific thresholds. As a result, temperatures inside the equipment climbed sharply, leading to food spoilage and roughly 20 fires at the affected sites.

The Paris public prosecutor's office announced on Monday that its cybercrime division has opened a judicial investigation. Charges include fraudulent interference with an automated data-processing system and causing damage by means dangerous to persons. Prosecutors allege the offenses were committed as part of an organized group and aggravated by their intent to serve a foreign power, specifically Iran. The investigation targets the leader of Shahid Kaveh, a cyber offensive unit affiliated with the Electronic and Cyber Center of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, along with his two deputies.

Investigators state that attackers gained remote control of the equipment via web interfaces. The probe uncovered an attack methodology characteristic of the Iranian unit, including the use of Persian language and IP addresses that trace back to devices located in Iran. Weeks after the initial French incident, similar attacks affected refrigerators and freezers at supermarkets in Belgium, Luxembourg, and Sweden. A separate cyberattack also targeted several locations in France, though the products and samples involved were not damaged.

Thomas Hamilton, a public affairs officer for the U.S. Department of the Army Criminal Investigation Division, told CBS News that an August incident sparked an ongoing investigation by the department. Officials in France, the United States, and other European nations hit by the hacks have not yet asserted that all of the incidents are connected. The FBI's cybercrime branch said last week that it is seeing malicious cyber activity targeting industrial refrigeration and cold-chain monitoring systems around the world.

The FBI warned that security weaknesses in unpatched or internet-accessible controllers can allow attackers to change system settings, potentially causing inventory loss and equipment damage. The agency urged organizations relying on such systems to take their controllers off the public internet and keep access behind a firewall. There was no immediate response from Iranian authorities to the French prosecutor's allegations on Monday. The Iranian regime has for months threatened to expand its retaliation, including over the ongoing U.S. naval blockade of its ports, using unspecified, asymmetrical means.