France Blames Iranian Military Hackers for Disrupting Supermarket Refrigeration

The French government has blamed an Iranian military hacking unit for cyberattacks that disrupted refrigeration systems at roughly 700 grocery stores and other retail locations last month, according to an Axios report by reporter Sam Sabin. The attacks caused food losses and at least 15 fires, the report said.

Axios described the disruption as sabotage of the equipment itself. The summary of the report available to this newspaper does not name the hacking unit or describe the evidence cited by the French government.

Axios wrote that the attacks illustrate a change in how Iranian government hackers operate. In the outlet's words, they are "moving beyond stealing data and disrupting websites to manipulating the physical equipment." The report presents the refrigeration incidents as an example of that shift.

The Axios summary places the case within a broader pattern of cyber activity linked to the Iranian government, which the outlet describes as expanding from data theft and website disruption toward control of physical systems. The summary does not give a breakdown of the affected locations or the cause of each fire.

The figures of roughly 700 locations and at least 15 fires come from Axios and have not been independently confirmed by The Federal Chronicle. This report relies on Axios for those figures.

The full Axios report contains further detail that is not reflected in the summary used for this story.

Sources: Axios: France says Iranian hackers sabotaged supermarket refrigerators.