Translated automatically by AI from the Italian original.
PARIS / ROME / CYBERSECURITY – A wave of cyber-sabotage that hit cold storage chains and logistics networks at more than 700 supermarkets and retail outlets in France last October, spreading to other European countries including Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom and Portugal, has turned into a delicate diplomatic and international security case.
The day after the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Paris formally opened a judicial investigation into Shahid Kaveh – the cyber warfare unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) – European diplomats and foreign ministries are moving to coordinate a response to what is being described as a genuine hybrid threat.
France speeds up: international arrest warrants and EU sanctions
Investigations by the J3 specialist section of the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Paris and French cyber-intelligence services have isolated the evidence of the intrusion. According to investigators, the “digital fingerprints” left by the hacktivists precisely indicate Tehran’s involvement: code and strings written in Farsi and IP addresses that trace directly to terminals located in Iran.
On the strength of this evidence, the French judiciary has requested international arrest warrants for the commander of the Shahid Kaveh group and his main lieutenants. At the same time, the French foreign minister Jean-Noël Barrot, on the sidelines of the G7 ministerial summit in Paris, summoned the ambassador of the Islamic Republic and announced the intention to push for severe EU sanctions packages, with discussion expected at the Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels.
In response, the Iranian foreign ministry issued a flat denial: Tehran dismissed the accusations as “unfounded speculation” aimed at escalating international political pressure.
Italy’s stance: Tajani points to a pro-Russian trail
On the Italian side, the foreign ministry’s line draws a nuanced distinction between the cross-Alpine episode and the recent cyber raids recorded on national critical and commercial infrastructure.
Speaking on the sidelines of the G7, the Italian foreign minister Antonio Tajani highlighted how the picture of responsibility for the attacks in Italy presents distinct elements:
“Those who hit Italy are certainly pro-Russian, but we do not yet know whether Moscow’s government is directly behind it.”
These statements confirm the existence of a multi-vector cyber threat landscape – with Middle Eastern hacktivist groups on one side and cells close to the Kremlin on the other – capable of coordinating or overlapping demonstrative and extortionate actions against the food, health and distribution sectors of Western countries.
