France blames Iran for cyberattack on commercial refrigerators

French authorities have accused Iran of launching a cyberattack against commercial refrigerators and freezers, the Daily Mail reported. Reuters reported that French officials suspect Iranian involvement, while France 24 and Demócrata reported that French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot specifically blamed Iran's Revolutionary Guard. Barrot stated that there will be consequences and that France will impose sanctions against Iran, according to the Daily Mail. [1][2][3][4][5][6]

The cyberattack occurred on October 11 and overrode temperature controls on commercial units in hundreds of establishments, the Daily Mail reported. Cybersecurity experts previously told Reuters that the attack appeared simple to execute. The firm behind many of the units noted that several were obsolete or running outdated firmware, according to the Daily Mail. [1][2]

The October 11 incident targeted refrigeration controllers at up to 700 French supermarkets, setting them to defrost mode overnight and causing units to overheat. The cold chain disruption forced stores to throw away spoiled goods, resulting in estimated financial losses of tens of millions of euros. The affected Danfoss refrigeration controllers contained web servers connected to the public internet, with many secured only by default credentials consisting of the username admin and the current date as the password. [7]

As FTMQ News reported earlier, the October disruption in France was followed by similar attacks on supermarket chains in Sweden, Belgium, and Luxembourg, where overnight freezer temperatures rose. The initial attack in France had pushed freezer temperatures up to 50 degrees Celsius. [9]