France’s supermarket fridges might be thawing but the country’s relationship with Iran is ice cold
Who vs who: France vs Iran
What it’s about: Several rubbish dumps’ worth of melted Roquefort, mouldering pâté and spoiled quiche (writes Andrew Mueller). Last month the software for hundreds of supermarket fridges in France – and elsewhere – was hacked, raising their temperatures and ruining their contents. France’s National Cybersecurity Agency (Anssi) determined that this was the work of a hacker cell known as Shahid Kaveh, which is linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The French Foreign Ministry summoned Iran’s ambassador in Paris to formally express its displeasure. It sounds as though it would have been a meeting without éclairs anyway: the French Foreign Ministry has the excuse that few refrigerated treats were available.
What it’s really about: France believes – and not implausibly – that it has been the target of Iranian hybrid warfare, for which Iran has long-standing form in Europe and elsewhere. The fridge-hacking bears all the hallmarks of a classic hybrid-warfare operation. It’s expensive and bewildering to the target, cheap and effective to the perpetrator, and has the added bonus of being readily deniable. And indeed, Iran denies it, harrumphing that France’s charge is “baseless and malicious”, part of a “hackneyed policy of levelling accusations against Iran”.
Likely resolution: France’s foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, has vowed “necessary and proportionate” measures by way of retaliation, though it is hard to imagine what these might be, unless he has instructed Anssi to do its worst to Iranian ice creameries. The EU, which has also pledged a “swift and united” response, can no doubt impose further sanctions on Iran, though it is difficult to imagine that the IRGC would care much. In hybrid warfare, the attacker has some enraging advantages, especially when it is waging its campaign on a democratic country – there is always a vulnerability somewhere.
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