France accuses Iran of supermarket fridge hacking

ByElla Kipling and Joe Tidy, Cyber Correspondent, BBC World Service.

Key points

• As well as 180 stores from Intermarché and its Netto brand, more than 100 of Coopérative U's supermarkets were hit.
• While a smaller number of shops were hit in countries including Sweden, Ireland, the Netherlands, Estonia and Finland, supermarkets in Belgium and Luxembourg were affected.
• France has accused Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of being behind cyber-attacks that raised the temperatures of supermarket fridges and freezers nationwide last month.
• Earlier this month a second wave of hacks took place, hitting more than 100 stores throughout Europe.

ByElla Kipling and Joe Tidy, Cyber Correspondent, BBC World Service. 9 November 2026, 16: 28 GMT. Updated 1 hour ago.

Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot remarked the attack was "unprecedented in both its scale and its level of aggression", adding those who were responsible would be hit with sanctions.

Iran has yet to respond officially, but some Iranian media outlets have dismissed the allegations as baseless.

Notably, the French hacking, which led to the destruction of tons of frozen and chilled food in France was followed by a similar attack against supermarkets throughout a number of other European countries. It is not known if the instances are linked.

Barrot remarked the attack on France's supermarkets "marks the first large-scale cyber-attack aimed at sabotage on our national territory, and it constitutes a major attack on the nation's interests and the security of the French people".

He remarked the administration had summoned the Iranian ambassador to Paris to "lodge a very strong protest against this extremely grave act".

France will take "any other necessary and proportionate measures" to respond to the incident and "deter anyone who might seek to repeat it", Barrot continued.

In practice, the Paris prosecutor remarked an investigation had been opened into the head of an offensive cyber unit associated with the IRGC as well as his two deputies.

Laure Beccuau named the unit as Shahid Kaveh. It she remarked had an affiliation with the electronic and cyber centre of the IRGC.

Shahid Kaveh is the name given to a cluster of hackers thought to be directly employed by the Iranian regime.

In recent weeks, a number of commentators and politicians in Iran have argued that the country should extend any retaliation beyond the Middle East if the US and Israel resume the war they kicked off earlier this year.

If the IRGC carried out the cyber-attacks, it remains unclear whether they were part of Iran's deterrence strategy.

On 11 October, hackers gained control of the software that regulates the temperatures of the refrigeration units applied in numerous of France's supermarkets.

As well as 180 stores from Intermarché and its Netto brand, more than 100 of Coopérative U's supermarkets were hit. In some stores, temperatures of the fridges reportedly rose to 50C (120F) overnight.

Other major food retailers including Carrefour, Monoprix and E.Leclerc were additionally hit by the attack. It targeted software provided by Danish engineering firm Danfoss. The software allows retailers to manage their cold units remotely.

Separately in August a small number of US military bases had fridges mysteriously malfunction, spoiling food. This incident is additionally being investigated as deliberate cyber-attacks, Reuters news agency has noted, citing sources familiar with the matter.

Since the waves of attacks on freezers, experts have been speculating which hacking groups could be responsible, with Iran being on a list of potential suspects.

In spite of a pair of Russian-aligned hacktivist groups claiming they were responsible on Wednesday, few believed them.

In practice, the French administration has not stated how it reached the conclusion that Iran was responsible, and attribution of cyber-attacks is extremely hard as hackers are able to hide their locations. Extra reporting by Farshad Bayan, BBC Persian.

Taken together, the developments around france accuses Iran of supermarket fridge hacking point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.