French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot has officially accused Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of organizing a large-scale cyberattack on the refrigeration systems of French supermarkets in October. He described the incident as “an attack of unprecedented scale and unprecedented aggressiveness” and the first major cyberattack carried out for sabotage purposes on French national territory.
The attack took place on the night of October 11–12, 2026. Hackers remotely gained access to refrigeration controllers of the Danfoss and Dixell brands at approximately 700 retail outlets. The attackers launched abnormally long defrost cycles, disabled temperature sensors, and raised temperatures to critical levels. As a result, large quantities of fresh and frozen products spoiled, and in some cases the equipment caught fire (around 20 fires were recorded).
Chains including Carrefour, Monoprix, Intermarché, Coopérative U and others were affected. The damage is estimated at tens of millions of euros.
The Paris prosecutor’s office has opened a judicial investigation. It targets the head of the Iranian cyber group Shahid Kaveh (an offensive unit affiliated with the IRGC Electronic and Cyber Center — IRGC-CEC) and his two deputies. Investigators cite the characteristic modus operandi of the attack, the use of Farsi, and IP addresses pointing to devices located in Iran.
Barrot stated that France intends to impose sanctions at the European Union level against those responsible and has summoned the Iranian ambassador to the Foreign Ministry. “This is a major assault on the nation’s interests and the security of the French people,” the minister emphasized.
