PARIS, France: The cyberattack on supermarket refrigerators that France has blamed on Iran marks a new phase in the asymmetric campaign Tehran is waging against the United States, extending it onto European soil, analysts say.
Scores of French supermarkets were hit in the October 11 and 12 cyberattacks, which raised the temperatures in their refrigerators, in some cases forcing them to throw away entire inventories of perishable food.
France said Iran’s Revolutionary Guards were behind the “unprecedented” cyberattacks, a charge Iran rejected.
While Paris referred only to attacks against French supermarkets, similar incidents were reported in at least 11 other European countries.
Iran has ramped up operations on European soil since the outbreak of the war launched by Israel and the United States in February, security sources and experts said.
Iran has also warned that any renewed strikes would trigger retaliation.
In recent days, “Iran has sent very clear signals to a number of countries, warning that if there is another major US-Israeli bombing campaign, there will be consequences in Europe,” a European security source told AFP.
Tehran has already been accused of plotting various attacks on US interests in Europe, including against two air bases used by the United States in Britain — the US military on Monday withdrew aircraft from Mildenhall Royal Air Force (RAF) base.
