If it really is Iran, the best reasoning I can think of is that it's like a demonstration of their offensive hacking capabilities to the US. It lets them show that they can use computer hacking to disrupt commercial operations and cause economic losses. If you look at it from that way, it makes sense that they went after Europe. Going after the US could cause an escalation in the war, so instead they go after European countries which will not do anything in response. The freezer controllers that were hacked are also made by Danfoss, a European company. I have no knowledge whatsoever of the commercial freezer market, but if being European means that Danfoss has a higher market share in Europe compared to the US, it lets them pull off this demonstration without burning a more valuable exploit.

Then next level would be to think if this were also a false-flag attack who would have wanted to look like Iran did it.

This has been Iran's strategy throughout the entire war. Them attacking France isn't any less rational than attacking, say, Qtar, or blockading non-US ships bound for non-US countries transiting the straight of Hormuz. They can't really fight back against the US directly, so instead they lash out indiscriminately against anyone or anything that's even remotely friendly to the US.

Russia would benefit if Europe started acting aggressively towards Iran (getting distracted from supporting Ukraine) and they are certainly not beyond false flag operations. Thinking about it their military is using literal false flag operations all the time to dupe their own leadership.

> doesnt super make a lot of sense for iran

It makes complete sense.

France headlines Operation Aspides, the Euro navy in Gulf of Aden vs Houthis. They are very involved, directly blunting Iran + Houthi trying to impose cost on west via control / attack on commercial shipping. Hence they get targeted, it's just Iran establishing mutual deterrence, you fuck around in our backyard, we fuck around in your infra and extract economic costs. Meanwhile their infra is basically gone, the amount of damage Iran can inflict vs receive via grayzone at this point is asymmetrical.

Iran russia and china and nk are all working for the same efforts as far as destabilizing the west and ideally turning back the clock on the whole citizens have rights thing that western citizens have been so uppity about and influencing the world with since the 1400's, barring that goal, settling on shitting up the place enough to put an end to western lead global order and returning to an age of regional powers with absolute authority in their spheres of influence. I dont think the attack needs to make sense, the statue of liberty stands in new york harbor, we are the same entity to them, they are at war with us.

I was guessing North Korea. But then again, I'm in the states and I think we're required to blame everything on North Korea these days.

Considering the help Iran is getting from Russia I am honestly not that surprised.

They are allies and I guess Russia could've suggested they do it, or at least knew about it and didn't care.

Yes finding attribution is and will always be important.

As is updating your vulns.

No? They’ve said they’ll attack US bases in European countries if those bases are being used as launching points of attacking Iran.

Of course it is possible, it is not as if Iran - a nation of around 90 million people - can't spare a few hacker types to break in to Danfoss (et. al.) to wreak havoc on (real or imagined) opponent's economies. This doesn't mean France is right in claiming Iran is behind it nor does it mean they're wrong, it just means Iran could pull something like this off if they wanted to. Hell, any group of motivated individuals with the required knowledge could pull this off.

Huh? Ukraine is an active cyber threat for Russia, and Ukraine's situation is far more dire than Iran's.

Russia has demonstrated that they can conduct so-called "hybrid warfare" as long as it doesn't lead to serious injury or death and the response will be meager. But it still creates pain for those targeted nations.

Iran could be seeing that this approach, rather than more blatant attacks, is a useful way to create problems for the US's allies with a lower risk of elevating those US allies to direct enemies. The intention would be to get the US allies to put pressure on the US (in particular) to back out of the US/Israel war on Iran.

They're not that stupid, and it's another lie.

We cannot rule out the fanatics running the US had this done to get the EU into the war. More to come, I'm sure.

Russia or Israel...

Ken is not a credible journalist. Probably not the worst, but he's closer to e.g. Glenn Greenwald than a pure fact-finder.

Russia, maybe, NK doubtful and Iran ? I do not think Iran is that stupid since in general many EU Countries are not that thrilled about Israel. But to me, it will be hard to know got 100% for sure.

>This included "the use of Farsi and IP addresses traced back to devices located in Iran"

I guess they were caught then. I heard of software that can hide or change these things called "IP addresses", but I guess using it is way too hard for organizations with plenty of resources :

While I believe that Russia might have serious hacking capability, then Iran much less so, but accusing NK is laughable to be honest. America with Israel though? They pwn Europe completely.

I think a lot of geopolitics makes more sense if you treat the ethnic divides as "excuses" and instead look at what the parties hope to achieve in terms of power and dominance.

They do have things to gain - credibility with the Arab and Sunni Muslim world for fighting against Israel and perhaps defeating it and excuse to operate their proxies and allies. Not to mention they are true believers, and even if they weren't, it doesn't have to be fully rational from your perspective; just from their own.

As for the Jews in Iran, there used to be 150,000 Jews in Iran before the revolution today there are ~9,000. Furthermore IRGC are very much the ideological inheritors of the type of folks who did the Allahdad (God's Justice) Massacre in Mashhad in 1839.

Both they don't want Israel to be too powerful and at the same time, the war is a good way to keep tight control on their population and kill any rebellion. You ensure that western ideas would not go into the head of the population by enjoying peace and seeing how it is going well in free neighbor countries, it give you a common enemy that you can accuse of everything.