France rules out 'nothing' in response to IRGC supermarket cyberattack
11:15, 10/11/2026, Tuesday
AFP
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French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said Paris would summon Iran's ambassador and seek EU sanctions after blaming the IRGC for unprecedented cyber sabotage of supermarket fridges.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Tuesday that Paris ruled out "nothing" in its response to a major cyberattack on hundreds of supermarket refrigerators in October, vowing to summon Iran's ambassador and pursue European-level sanctions against Tehran.
Speaking to FranceinfoTV, Barrot stated that France would take undisclosed measures against the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which French authorities blame for the unprecedented sabotage. "I can also tell you that we rule nothing out and will take all measures -- including those we may not disclose publicly -- that we deem proportionate and necessary to deter any further attacks," he said. Barrot added that the goal is "to deter anyone who might be tempted, in Iran or elsewhere, to do it again".
Prosecutor opens probe into Shahid Kaveh
Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau on Monday opened an investigation into Shahid Kaveh, describing it as "an offensive cyber unit affiliated with the Electronic and Cyber Centre of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC-CEC)", and requested international arrest warrants for two officials. "This attack is unprecedented in both its scale and its level of aggression," Barrot said on the sidelines of a G7 foreign ministers' meeting in Paris, noting that the October 11-12 strikes targeted 700 sites and forced retailers to discard perishable goods after hackers raised temperatures via web-controlled defrost cycles.
Pan-European scope
Similar incidents have since struck stores in at least nine other European countries, with a suspected cyberattack on freezer systems reported on November 2 across the continent. France's Centre for Coordination of Cyber Crises said the unit conducts large-scale campaigns targeting industrial equipment for sabotage, directed primarily against Israel and the United States but also against France and other European nations.
The United States and Israel fought a war against Iran that began with the killing of supreme leader Ali Khamenei on February 28.
