Science & Tech · Cybersecurity · 1 day ago
Pentagon probes U.S. military commissary freezer failures as possible cyberattack
The Pentagon’s criminal investigators are examining freezer failures at more than six U.S. military commissaries in August as a possible cyberattack.
The affected stores were on military bases in several states, including California, New Mexico and Rhode Island.
The investigation follows a separate incident in which hackers disrupted refrigeration at hundreds of French supermarkets, raising temperatures above 122 degrees Fahrenheit and spoiling food.
Two French chains reported about €270,000 in combined stock damage, and some stores also reported fires.
Investigators have not confirmed a hack at the U.S. stores, or established that the American and French incidents are connected.
The outages matter because spoiled food creates losses that cannot be reversed, while commissaries sell subsidized goods to people living on military bases.
The Pentagon is investigating the U.S. outages and working with French authorities on the supermarket incident; no findings have been announced.
The Pentagon’s criminal investigators are leading a joint probe into freezer failures at U.S. military commissaries in August.
The Pentagon is treating the outages as a possible cyberattack, but there is no proof they were caused by hacking.
More than a half-dozen commissaries were affected, including locations in seven states.
The probe followed reports of hackers raising refrigeration temperatures at hundreds of French supermarkets.
There is no proof that the U.S. and French outages are connected.
- Who
- The Defense Criminal Investigative Service is leading the joint investigation.
- What
- The Pentagon is investigating freezer failures at U.S. military commissaries as a possible cyberattack.
- When
- The commissary outages occurred in August.
- Where
- More than a half-dozen U.S. military commissaries were affected, including sites in California, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Arkansas, Wyoming, Georgia and Arizona.
- Why
- The cause of the failures is not established. Investigators are examining whether they were a cyberattack.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
Freezer failures affected more than a half-dozen U.S. military commissaries.
Hackers targeted refrigeration and freezer systems at hundreds of French supermarkets, spoiling food and causing fires.
The Pentagon’s investigation and a partnership with French authorities to examine the French supermarket outages followed the reported incidents.
- Investigating agency
- Defense Criminal Investigative Service
- U.S. outages
- August
- Affected commissaries
- More than a half-dozen
- Affected locations
- Fort Irwin, California; Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico; Naval Station Newport, Rhode Island; Little Rock Air Force Base, Arkansas; F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming; Robins Air Force Base, Georgia; Fort Huachuca, Arizona
- French supermarket temperatures
- More than 122 degrees Fahrenheit
What people are saying
You’d be silly not to be suspicious,
Refrigerators give an attacker a weirdly direct route…to financial loss that’s, with cyber, unusually irreversible,
You can’t unspoil food or other products from these freezers. It’s just Euros and dollars down the drain.
For security reasons, we do not comment on ongoing law enforcement investigations.