France vows tough response to freezer cyberattack blamed on Iran

A month after a massive cyber attack knocked out hundreds of fridges and freezers across France, forcing supermarkets to throw out entire stocks of perishable food, Iran is still denying any involvement. But Paris now officially blames Tehran for what it calls the first large-scale cyber attack designed to sabotage French infrastructure. I can confirm that this attack was carried out by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of the Islamic Republic of Iran. This attack is unprecedented in both its scale and its level of aggression, inédit, and we will take any other proportionate and necessary measures, whether public or private, to respond to this attack and deter those who might want to repeat it. France has summoned the Iranian ambassador in Paris and is threatening further European sanctions against Iran. An investigation has been opened against the head of Shahid Kaveh, a cyber-offensive unit tied to the Revolutionary Guard. The total cost of the hacks could reach into the tens of millions of euros nationwide. On November 2nd, a second wave of cyber-attacks struck grocery stores in at least nine other other European countries. Even French blood banks were hit, forcing staff to transfer blood supplies to other cold storage facilities. Iran is suspected of involvement in a string of malicious cyber operations since the beginning of the war with the United States in February. Meanwhile, the Pentagon is investigating a similar incident at U.S. military bases in August when refrigerators were mysteriously shut down in at least half a dozen military commissaries.