From the Guardian · · 1m 30s
Iran blamed for French supermarket freezer hack
France attributes a cyberattack that spoiled food across supermarkets to Iranian hackers, part of a pattern of attacks on refrigeration systems across Europe and the US.
In brief
France attributes a cyberattack that spoiled food across supermarkets to Iranian hackers, part of a pattern of attacks on refrigeration systems across Europe and the US. France has attributed a cyberattack on supermarket freezers to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, with some fridges catching fire and food…
Iran's history of hacking with a message
In twenty twenty-three, Iranian state-backed hackers interrupted TV streaming in the United Arab Emirates to broadcast a deepfake report on the war in Gaza.
France attributes freezer attack to Iran
France has attributed an attack on supermarket fridges to hackers operating under the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a key branch of Iran's military establishment.Some refrigerators had their temperature turned up so high they caught fire.
Widespread food spoilage across stores
In the hours after the hack, supermarket employees dumped piles of perished meat and melted ice-cream into rubbish containers. France's foreign minister described it as an act of unprecedented scale and unprecedented aggression.
“unprecedented scale and unprecedented aggression”
Part of a broader pattern of attacks
The French attack follows attacks on industrial freezers at an Israeli food production plant in May and freezer malfunctions at US military bases in August now reportedly being treated as a suspected hack.
Attack used simple, unsophisticated methods
Rafe Pilling, a senior director at Sophos, a cybersecurity firm, said hackers used default passwords to access fridge controls.
“The attacks themselves were not particularly complex”
Iran's cyber strategy: projecting power
According to Pilling, Iran uses cyber-attacks to project power internationally and to signal political displeasure with regional and international adversaries.
The takeaway
France has attributed a cyberattack on supermarket freezers to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, with some fridges catching fire and food spoiling across stores.
