Symbolic imageFrance summons Iran's envoy and weighs sanctions over supermarket fridge cyberattack
France summoned Iran's ambassador on Tuesday after blaming the Revolutionary Guards for an October cyberattack on supermarket refrigeration. Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot says Paris rules out no response, including EU sanctions.
A day after Paris formally attributed the attack to the Guards' cyber unit Shahid Kaveh, the secretary general of the Quai d'Orsay received Iran's ambassador on Tuesday, 10 November. Barrot said France would take all measures it deems proportionate, including ones it will not announce publicly, citing French cyber-defence doctrine. He called the attack unprecedented in scale and aggression, and the first sabotage-motivated cyberattack of this size in France. Iran's foreign ministry rejected the "baseless and unilateral" accusations, and FAZ reports it called the step irresponsible and ridiculous.
Scale of the damage
The attack in the night of 11 to 12 October hit refrigeration controllers at about 700 retail sites. Le Monde reports at least 15 fires, plus damage at a slaughterhouse, food plants and hydroelectric installations. The blood bank EFS says cooling at three sites was manipulated from minus 30 to plus 110 degrees, but alarms caught it and no blood products were damaged.
Warrants and EU response
Paris prosecutors requested international arrest warrants for the head of the Guards' cyber command and two Shahid Kaveh officials, according to Le Monde. An EU spokesperson said the Union is ready for a quick, united response, but FAZ reports no timetable for tougher sanctions yet.