The head of French diplomacy, Jean-Noël Barrot affirmed Monday that Iran was responsible for the cyberattack against supermarket refrigerators in October in France. Investigating judges have just been appointed to investigate this attack involving a cyber unit of the Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Published on: 09/11/2026 - 17:46 Modified on: 09/11/2026 - 18:07
The Revolutionary Guards of the Islamic Republic of Iran are behind the cyberattack against supermarket refrigerators in October in France, the head of French diplomacy denounced on Monday, November 9, assuring that sanctions would be taken "on a European scale".
“Thanks to the remarkable action of state services, I am able to confirm that responsibility for this attack lies with the Revolutionary Guard Corps of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” declared Jean-Noël Barrot during a press briefing on the sidelines of the G7. “It is an attack of unprecedented scale and unprecedented aggressiveness,” he stressed.
He recalled that this cyberattack had targeted and affected nearly 700 distribution sites on October 11 and 12, "resulting in damage and outbreaks of fire."
"We obviously, it's the least we can do, summoned the Iranian ambassador to France on Monday to protest very strongly against this extremely serious act. We will take sanctions on a European scale against all those responsible for this attack," added the French minister.
“We have the Foreign Affairs Council next Monday, so we will have the opportunity to discuss it, because these cyber incidents occurring in Europe, if they are attributed, also call for a strong response from us,” declared the head of European diplomacy Kaja Kallas, stressing that the ministers of the seven most industrialized countries had just been informed that this cyber attack was “attributed to Iran”.
“Until now, we didn’t know the attribution,” she recalled.
The specialized press had pointed out attacks carried out by two groups of pro-Russian hackers, NoName057(16) and Z-Pentest, already known for other operations in Europe in recent years.
But the Kremlin denied on November 5 that it was involved in these cyberattacks which have targeted not only France but other European countries in recent weeks.
International arrest warrants
Investigating judges were tasked on Monday with investigating these large-scale cyberattacks. The Paris prosecutor's office has opened a judicial investigation targeting "the head of the Iranian group Shahid Kaveh, an offensive cyber unit affiliated with the Electronic and Cyber Center of the Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC-CEC)" and "his two deputies", indicated for her part the public prosecutor Laure Beccuau in a press release.
Investigators have “uncovered, with the support of specialized State services, an attack mode characteristic of this unit (Iranian, Shahid Kaveh, Editor’s note), the use of Farsi and IP addresses referring to terminals located in Iran,” she said.
The prosecution requested the issuance of international arrest warrants against them.
On October 12, the cybercrime section of the Paris public prosecutor's office took charge, "under its national jurisdiction, of these simultaneous attacks", specified the head of the Paris public prosecutor's office.
These had targeted, on the night of October 11 to 12, "supermarket refrigeration controllers of the Danfoss and Dixell brands, targeting around 700 mass distribution sites in France", recalled Laure Beccuau, stressing that these attacks had "caused significant food losses and around twenty fire outbreaks".
“The attackers took control of the equipment remotely via web interfaces to launch abnormal defrost cycles of unlimited duration, while deactivating the security alerts of the probes supposed to activate above a certain temperature,” she explained.
The investigation was entrusted to the Anti-Cybercrime Office (Ofac) and the General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI), whose investigations will now continue under the direction of investigating judges.
With AFP
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