Pentagon Treats August Freezer Failures at U.S. Bases as Suspected Cyberattack, Officials Say
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is treating the spate of mysterious freezer malfunctions that spoiled food at military bases across the United States in August as a suspected hack, according to four officials familiar with the matter, Reuters reported.
A Reuters review of the bases' contemporaneous social media posts and website updates found that the late-August malfunctions affected at least six commissaries, the on-base stores where military personnel buy food. In at least one case, the freezers did not simply stop working: the cooling units' temperatures were cranked up overnight, leaving mounds of wilted or melted food in the morning. The Fort Huachuca, Arizona, base explained on August 26 that its freezer "went into defrost mode where it heated up all the food. Trust us when we say it was 'spoiled.'"
The U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division said its Cyber Field Office was involved in the investigation and was working with French law enforcement to better understand "the refrigeration outages in Europe." Asked about the investigation, the Pentagon said a unit of Cyber Command was "working in close coordination with interagency and law enforcement partners," without elaborating. Reuters said it could not ascertain how far the investigation had progressed or whether it had reached conclusions about who might be responsible; the French Embassy in Washington did not return a message seeking comment.
A similar French freezer cyberattack earlier this month overrode temperature controls on commercial cooling units in more than 350 establishments, clearing supermarkets' frozen food aisles of spoiled merchandise; some units were turned up so high they caught fire, and one supermarket owner estimated the French attack's total costs could reach tens of millions of euros nationwide. Experts previously told Reuters the French attack appeared easy to pull off: many of the controllers, made by the Danish firm Danfoss, were obsolete or running outdated firmware. Reuters could not establish whether Danfoss or any other brand of controller was in use at the affected U.S. bases, and Danfoss did not return messages seeking comment.
Refrigeration plays a critical role in the distribution of fresh food, and sabotage of cold storage over the internet has long been seen as a nightmare scenario. Bill Moore, chief executive of industrial cybersecurity firm Xona Systems, said concerns about online exposure were not unique to cooling systems, but the consequences could be particularly serious: "It can definitely disrupt the supply chain for food," he said.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
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