France Accuses Iran of Europe-Wide Industrial Fridge Hack

France on Monday accused Iran of staging a cyberattack against industrial fridges in Europe in mid-October.

The hack targeted fridges by cranking up the thermostat to nearly 50°C (122°F) via the compromised control system, with French businessman Thierry Cotillard claiming losses amounting to “tens of millions of euros nationwide in a single day” as food spoiled across major suppliers, Reuters reported .

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The perpetrator remained unclear for weeks, but France on Monday evening accused a hacker group operating under Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of being responsible.

“A judicial investigation has been opened against the head of the Iranian group Shahid Kaveh, an offensive cyber unit affiliated with the Electronic and Cyber Center of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC-CEC), against his two deputies, and against any other individuals who may be identified,” Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said in a statement, according to AFP.

The outlet added that French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot had vowed EU-level sanctions against Tehran in the wake of the incident.

The BBC said Tehran has not commented on the allegations.

Initial reports suggest fridges in Spain, Portugal, Poland, Germany and Belgium were affected, followed by another wave of similar attacks in November targeting around 100 fridges in Estonia, Belgium, Luxembourg, Finland, Ireland and Sweden.

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The European Commission described the attacks as a threat to Europe’s “food safety.”

It’s unclear if the two waves are directly related.

Estonia decries ‘state- terrorism’

Estonia, one of the countries affected by the latest wave, has warned of rising risks of hybrid warfare from Russia in the wake of recent incidents.

Estonian Interior Minister Igor Taro noted a spike in Moscow-affiliated sabotage cases but noted that the perpetrators of the fridge hack remained unclear.

He cited an arson attack on Milrem Robotics, an Estonian defense robotics company, in August. Taro said authorities arrested several suspects within hours and that they had initially been recruited by Russia to carry out the attack.

The minister estimated that Russia was responsible for around 90% of internal security issues in Estonia, with China accounting for 5% and other actors responsible for the remainder.

He also argued that the nature of the sabotage, alongside its scale, no longer fits into the category of hybrid warfare.

“Hybrid is too soft [a] word for this,” Taro told the Financial Times. “It’s state- terrorism.”

Moscow denied its involvement in the latest fridge hacks on Thursday, according to AFP.