The US Pentagon is treating a series of mysterious August freezer malfunctions across military bases as a suspected cyberattack, according to officials. The incidents spoiled significant amounts of food in at least six commissaries.
Military investigators, including the Army Criminal Investigation Division’s Cyber Field Office and US Cyber Command are collaborating with French authorities, who recently suffered similar hacks on commercial refrigeration systems. In France, hackers overrode temperature controls in over 350 supermarkets with raising temperatures to destroy food and even causing fires, resulting in millions of euros in damages.
At US facilities like Fort Huachuca in Arizona, cooling units unexpectedly switched to defrost mode overnight, heating up and ruining stored items. Investigators suspect internet-connected temperature controllers originally designed for offline and manual servicing may have left systems vulnerable to remote tampering.
Security experts warn that cold storage sabotage poses severe threats to global food supply chains. US federal prosecutors previously charged hackers for targeting meatpacking refrigeration in 2024 while similar attacks hit Israeli and Russian supermarkets in 2022. Industry bodies continue to urge tighter cybersecurity protocols to protect food storage infrastructure.
