France Blames Iran For Cyberattack That Paralyzed Supermarket Freezers, Vows Retaliation For "Sabotage"
France accused Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of masterminding last month's cyberattack, which disrupted 700 of the country's 10,000 supermarkets and struck deep inside the country's food supply chain.
Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said earlier today in Paris that the IRGC's operation marked the first large-scale cyberattack aimed at sabotage on French territory. Speaking on the sidelines of the G7 ministerial meeting, he said France had summoned Iran's ambassador on the matter and was seeking sanctions against the group responsible.
"This is the first large-scale cyberattack with an aim of sabotage on the national territory," Barrot said. "It hurts the nation's interests and the security of French citizens. We will take sanctions at the European level against all who are responsible" and "we will take any other proportionate and necessary measure to respond to this attack and dissuade those who would like to reproduce it."
Last month, the French finance minister told Parliament that the cyberattack on the country's supermarkets "touches the heart of our food security" and is a "wake-up call for everyone."
According to local outlet BFM-TV, hackers forced a continuous defrost cycle and set temperatures at 700 supermarkets as high as 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit).
"Targeting equipment essential to the preservation of fresh products is an attack on the French food supply chain. It is unprecedented, extremely serious, and unacceptable," Dominique Schelcher, CEO of French grocery chain Cooperative U, told AP News last month.
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So a single cyberattack disrupted hundreds of French supermarkets, exposing the fragility of the country's food supply chain. Add mounting unrest by communist groups and a deepening debt crisis, and the failing Macron government faces a collision of crises as Marine Le Pen's odds surge on Polymarket ahead of next April's elections.