France Blames Iran's Revolutionary Guards for Supermarket Fridge Cyber-Attacks

France has blamed Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, known as the IRGC, for cyber-attacks on supermarket refrigerators, according to The Guardian. Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot confirmed that the attacks in October were carried out by the IRGC. He described them as unprecedented in scale and in their level of aggression.

The attacks took place on 11 and 12 October. According to Reuters, the French supermarket chain Intermarché was hit, with 150 of its stores targeted. The hackers raised the temperature of refrigerators and freezers to as high as 50 degrees Celsius, or 122 Fahrenheit, and the overheating sparked fires.

Hackers took control of cooling units at hundreds of supermarkets, and French investigators went after the people responsible. Reuters reported that the investigation was still under way at the time of its later coverage.

A second wave of refrigerator hacking hit more than 100 establishments across Europe, according to The Guardian. That wave also affected refrigerators used by French blood banks. Staff moved some blood to other cold storage units.

France said it will implement sanctions at the European level against those responsible for the fridge attacks. Sanctions are restrictive measures that governments impose on individuals, groups or states, and European-level sanctions apply across the European Union as a whole. The EU had already classified the IRGC as a terrorist group earlier this year, according to TF1.