French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot on Monday accused the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of being behind a recent cyberattack on French supermarket fridges, saying there would be consequences for the country.
Meanwhile, the Paris prosecutor's office said it had requested international arrest warrants against the leader of Shahid Kaveh, an offensive cyber unit affiliated with the IRGC, and his two deputies.
If the accusation is confirmed, that would make the hacks among the most disruptive cyberattacks of the war with Iran, which began in February and has been marked by scattered incidents of alleged cyber disruption. These have included disruptions to the Los Angeles transit system in March, US water treatment plants in July, and ships bound for the United States in August.
The French foreign ministry and the Paris prosecutor's office did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Iran's mission to the United Nations did not return messages seeking comment. Iran routinely denies carrying out malicious cyber operations.
The October 11 cyberattack, which overrode the temperature controls on commercial fridges in hundreds of establishments, appeared easy to pull off, cybersecurity experts previously told Reuters. The firm behind many of the stricken units said that several were obsolete or were running outdated firmware, which could have made it easy for hackers to break in.
Attacks affect refrigerators across Europe
The attack raised the temperature of refrigerators and freezers at hundreds of French supermarkets to as high as 50 degrees Celsius overnight, causing fires and spoiling food.
The Paris prosecutor's office said that a "large-scale" attack was "affecting connected refrigerators in several major food retailers across France," leading to food losses and fires.
A person in his office said Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu has instructed France's National Cybersecurity Agency (ANSSI) to investigate.
A similar attack later in November 2 hit supermarket groups Ahold Delhaize and Colruyt in Belgium and Luxembourg, as well as Swedish grocers ICA and Coop. Furniture-to-meatballs retailer IKEA also saw at least one store affected.
"Everything is destroyed," Engla Ingwall, sales manager at an ICA franchise store in Stockholm, told Reuters during a visit to the store on Monday, adding the attack occurred at 2 a.m. (0100 GMT) but was only noticed hours later.
"There has been a cyberattack and all our freezers reached 50 degrees (Celsius)."
A spokesperson for privately held ICA said the company was aware that a "limited number of stores were affected by an incident overnight, which impacted their refrigeration and freezer systems."