Iran rejects France's 'baseless accusations' on fridge cyberattacks

Iran on Tuesday said French accusations that it was responsible for cyberattacks on supermarket fridges last month were "baseless".

"Iran's foreign ministry categorically rejects the French government's baseless and one-sided accusations against Iran regarding alleged cyber activities in France," the ministry said in a statement.

It added that it "strongly condemns this hackneyed policy of levelling accusations against the Islamic republic".

The response follows a statement by French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot on Monday that said Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was behind the series of attacks targeting French supermarket fridges on the night of 11-12 October.

Hundreds of French supermarkets were hit by cyber-attacks, which raised the temperatures in their refrigerators and freezers, forcing many to throw away entire inventories of perishable food.

Stores belonging to Carrefour, Monoprix, Intermarché and Coopérative U were among those hit when attackers manually overrode fridge temperatures.

Similar incidents were then reported in at least 10 other European countries in early November.

Along with summoning Iran's ambassador and seeking European-level sanctions, Barrot said Tuesday that Paris would "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".