Pentagon Investigates Possible Cyberattack on U.S. Military Freezers

The Pentagon is launching a joint investigation into suspected cyberattacks that caused freezers at hundreds of French supermarkets to malfunction in August, raising concerns about similar incidents affecting military commissaries across the United States.

According to Reuters and four officials who spoke with them, Defense Department investigators are treating recent freezer malfunctions at U.S. bases as a potential hack after learning of hackers' actions against French retail chains earlier this month. A unit within Cyber Command is coordinating closely with interagency partners and law enforcement agencies on the matter.

The blog Signal and Silence first flagged suspicions in late August regarding 14 reported outages across military installations in 11 states, though Reuters confirmed at least six cases. Social media posts from locations such as Fort Huachuca clarified that while power remained stable, freezers entered defrost mode, heating food to spoil levels.

The Defense Commissary Agency (DeCA) enforces engineering specifications requiring Remote Monitoring Control Systems for refrigeration units; procurement documents indicate these systems are installed at 182 sites, including all locations on the reported outage list. Meanwhile, French supermarkets like Intermarché and E.Leclerc suffered estimated stock losses of approximately $300,000 due to temperatures rising as high as 122 degrees.

Experts note that while there is no proof yet connecting the two events or confirming a cyberattack on U.S. bases, the timing between the French supermarket incidents and commissary failures warrants close scrutiny. The Pentagon's criminal investigators are leading this probe in collaboration with their French counterparts.