France has summoned Iran’s ambassador on Tuesday after accusing Tehran of a cyberattack last month that raised temperatures in hundreds of supermarkets across the country.
Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot issued a warning to Iran, adding that Paris can conduct cyber operations on its own.
French officials on Monday said Shahid Kaveh, an elite offensive cyber unit affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), was behind the attack which had disabled multiple refrigeration systems across France in October.
The French foreign ministry statement read, “The summoning of the Iranian ambassador, announced by the minister yesterday, took place this morning.”
Barrot told radio station Franceinfo that the government was capable of responding with bans on entering European territory or EU sanctions against those who were behind the "attack of unprecedented scale and aggression in our country". He also added that further action could be taken but would not be disclosed.
"We will take whatever measures are necessary, including some that we will not discuss publicly, if we judge them proportionate and necessary to deter any new attacks and punish those responsible for this unacceptable aggression," Barrot said.
Investigators reportedly found that the IP addresses that were used in the attack pointed to devices in Iran. The French government also flagged the use of Farsi.
The cyber attack had taken place over the night of October 11 to October 12, when hackers targeted hundreds of French supermarkets by causing refrigerators and freezers to overheat, spoiling food worth millions of euros.
Major French retailers, including Intermarché, E. Leclerc, Carrefour, Monoprix and Coopérative U, were targeted.
The hackers gained access to the software that regulated the temperature of the refrigerators. The software system was manufactured by Danfoss and used to monitor the freezers and refrigerated display cases.
The refrigerators go through defrosting cycles overnight, and the hackers exploited the cycle in older versions of the freezers, which could no longer trigger alerts in case of malfunction. They triggered unlimited cycles, affecting over 400 stores.
Relations between France and Iran have been strained after Iran refused to halt uranium enrichment programmes for nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.
Though France’s distance from the US during the West Asia conflict improved the relations, it deteriorated again after Iran expelled two French diplomats. France responded by expelling Iranian diplomats.
