Bessent Says a Chinese Super Intelligence Model Was Used in French Supermarket Fridge Hacks; France Had Blamed Iran's Revolutionary Guard
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a speech on November 12 that a Chinese super intelligence (SI) model was used in the recent hacks that disabled refrigerators in French supermarkets, Bloomberg reported the same day. His claim differs from the French government's public attribution: French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot had on November 9 blamed Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for the attacks.
\"I don't know who here saw the refrigerators and 150 grocery stores in France that got turned off,\" Bessent said in the speech. According to Bloomberg, the fridge attacks in France affected about 700 supermarkets and the country's public blood bank, forcing grocers and retailers to throw out damaged food.
The European cold-chain attacks began on October 11-12, when refrigeration controllers at hundreds of French sites were remotely switched into defrost mode. A second wave on November 2 hit supermarkets and cold stores across Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Italy, Sweden, Estonia, Ireland, Portugal, Poland, Spain and Germany. France formally attributed the attacks on November 9 to Shahid Kaveh, a cyber unit of the Revolutionary Guard, summoned Iran's ambassador and said it would push for European Union sanctions. Iran has denied involvement.
Bessent did not name the Chinese model in the speech, nor say what evidence the United States holds. If accurate, his remark would mean a Chinese model was used as a tool somewhere in the same attack campaign, which would not necessarily conflict with France's attribution of who carried it out. Neither government has so far published a complete attribution account.
(Source: Bloomberg)
Source: Bloomberg
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：超市冷冻货架（资料图）。摄影：Phillip Pessar，CC BY 2.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: A supermarket freezer aisle (file photo). Photo by Phillip Pessar, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
