France Attributes Supermarket Refrigeration Sabotage to Iran's IRGC
France has formally accused Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of orchestrating a wave of cyber sabotage against refrigeration systems at roughly 700 retail and food-industry sites in October. According to The Record, the attribution appears in a five-page report from France’s Cyber Crisis Coordination Centre, which brings together the national cybersecurity agency ANSSI, the military cyber command and the DGSE and DGSI intelligence services. The report ties the activity to an IRGC unit known as Shahid Kaveh, which U.S. agencies earlier in 2026 identified as another name for the CyberAv3ngers group. Authorities say the attacks caused extensive food losses and at least 15 fires.
Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot confirmed the attribution at a G7 ministerial meeting in Paris and called the sabotage unprecedented in scale and aggressiveness. France summoned Iran’s ambassador and said it will seek European sanctions. The Paris Prosecutor’s Office opened a judicial investigation targeting the unit’s head, two deputies and unidentified others, and requested international arrest warrants. French investigators cited Farsi-language artefacts, tooling and infrastructure used in reconnaissance against other industrial equipment, and ANSSI said the same actors also targeted Schneider Electric equipment at several small hydroelectric sites, with moderate disruption. Iran routinely denies such operations and had not publicly responded at the time of reporting.
The report does not cover a second wave of refrigeration attacks in early November that, per The Record, affected businesses in at least 11 European countries, including British meat suppliers and French national blood service sites. In a related development, CISA and the FBI have issued a joint advisory urging operators to remove industrial refrigeration controllers from the internet, and the story was also reported by The Hacker News, BleepingComputer and Risky Business News.