France seeks arrests over fridge hack

Paris prosecutors requested international arrest warrants on Monday for the head of Shahid Kaveh and two of his deputies. The three men are accused of leading a cyber unit that hijacked commercial refrigeration systems last month. Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot stated that Tehran would face consequences for the incident. He formally placed the blame on Iran's Revolutionary Guards.

The joint report from French intelligence and cyber agencies named Hamid Reza Lashgarian, Mahdi Lashgarian, and Reza Salarvand as the alleged associates. Investigators linked the group to the breach by matching attack patterns to previous operations. They also found traces of the Farsi language within the attack infrastructure. The hackers operated through front groups using names like CyberAveng3rs and Cyber Isnaad Front.

The intrusion hit 700 commercial sites across France on October 11. At least 15 fires started after the attackers raised the heat inside refrigeration units. Supermarkets suffered the most damage, but small butcher shops, a slaughterhouse, and food processing factories were also affected. Employees hauled boxes of spoiled meat and melted ice cream into large trash containers in the hours following the hack. One supermarket owner estimated the total cost could reach tens of millions of euros.

The attack overrode temperature controls on hundreds of units. Cybersecurity experts noted that the breach was relatively simple to execute. The company that manufactured many of the affected units said several were obsolete or running outdated firmware. This likely made them easy targets for the hackers. Microsoft privately connected Iran to the October hacks at least two weeks ago, according to three people familiar with the matter.

A second wave of hacking struck more than 100 establishments in Europe this month. The new attacks reached refrigerators used by French blood banks. Staff had to move some blood to different cold storage units to keep it safe. The repetition of these simple hacks across multiple countries has fueled speculation about the responsible party. This comes amid concerns over Russian sabotage and the war between the United States and Iran.

Similar incidents occurred in the United States in August. Refrigerators in at least half a dozen military commissaries went out of commission. Pentagon investigators are treating those malfunctions as a suspected cyberattack. They are working with French officials on the issue. The Pentagon said on Monday that it is aware of speculation regarding a potential cyber incident. It could not offer further comment for security reasons.