What is Shahid Kaveh, ⁠⁠the Iran cyberunit tied to France’s fridge hacking?

IRGC-linked unit operates through front groups posing as vigilante hackers to hit adversaries, says French intelligence. The French government has accused Shahid Kaveh – a group it says is linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) – of being behind recent cyberattacks targeting refrigerators in French supermarkets.

The alleged sabotage campaign last month hacked into refrigeration systems in hundreds of stores in France and remotely cranked up temperatures, spoiling millions of euros’ worth of food. French officials have accused the IRGC of orchestrating the October 11-12 cyberattack, which they say targeted 700 commercial sites across France.

In a statement, the Paris prosecutor’s office specifically blamed Shahid Kaveh, which it described as a “an offensive cyberunit” affiliated with the IRGC’s cyberelectronic command (CEC). The Iranian Foreign Ministry, in a statement, described the accusations as a “highly irresponsible and contemptible action to tarnish Iran’s image and disrupt its relations with other countries”.