Belgium and France suspect Iran behind supermarket cyber attacks
Belgium and France see evidence of Iranian responsibility for cyber attacks on cooling systems in European supermarkets. Iran rejects the accusations sharply.
Investigations point to Iran
After France, Belgium's Interior Minister Bernard Quintin confirmed that Belgium has also found evidence of possible connections to known Iranian actors, as tagesspiegel.de reports. The public prosecutor's office is currently examining these findings in greater detail. Quintin emphasised: "We take these cyber attacks very seriously and are deploying all necessary means to assess the threat."
France had already accused Iran's Revolutionary Guards on Monday of carrying out the hacking attacks. Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot spoke of an attack of unprecedented scale and unprecedented aggression. France announced that it would impose new sanctions against those responsible.
Attacks on cooling systems in several countries
In the cyber attacks, attackers remotely increased the temperature in refrigerators and freezers in supermarkets, causing goods to spoil. Belgium, Sweden, France and Germany were affected by the attacks on cooling and freezing systems.
Belgium's Interior Minister Quintin announced that he wants to join France. Iran had "attacked France and possibly also Belgium". Belgium must support the call for European sanctions against states that carry out cyber attacks on its territory.
Iran rejects accusations
Iran's Foreign Ministry rejected the French accusations and described them as "irresponsible and ridiculous". The accusations were intended to damage the country's reputation and disrupt its international relations.
Germany has not yet commented on possible perpetrators. Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt called the cyber attacks a hybrid attack "next level" and announced that Germany was creating the legislative prerequisites to "strike back" in cyberspace.
Source: Die Zeit Kriminalität