The Pentagon's criminal investigative service is investigating mysterious freezer failures at military commissaries across the country as a possible cyberattack, a Defense Department official confirmed Thursday.
The outages affected at least six military commissaries in August, with some installations temporarily unable to sell refrigerated or frozen food. At Fort Huachuca in Arizona, every commissary freezer entered defrost mode overnight, heating and spoiling its contents. The investigation comes after confirmed cyberattacks disrupted refrigeration systems at more than 350 supermarkets across France in October, where hackers remotely activated defrost cycles. Army CID spokesman Thomas Hamilton confirmed that Army Criminal Investigation Division is working with the Defense Commissary Agency and the Defense Criminal Investigative Service to determine what happened. "We are aware of speculation regarding a potential cyber incident," a Defense Department official said. "The Defense Criminal Investigative Service is leading a joint investigation. For security reasons, we do not comment on ongoing law enforcement investigations."
Reuters reported Thursday, citing four officials familiar with the matter, that investigators are treating the U.S. incidents as suspected cyberattacks, though the Pentagon has not publicly confirmed hackers were responsible. The Defense Cyber Defense Command is coordinating with law enforcement and other federal agencies. Army CID is also working with French law enforcement in understanding the refrigeration outages in Europe.
The incidents expose vulnerabilities in the computers that control refrigeration equipment used to store and handle food — an area of cybersecurity often overlooked by military planners. A 2021 Department of Homeland Security assessment of threats to food and agriculture specifically identified refrigeration failures and shipping delays as cybersecurity risks that could cause spoilage and shortages. The Food and Agriculture Information Sharing and Analysis Center has warned that attackers are targeting internet-accessible industrial controls that may lack optimal cyberdefenses.
Wes Bryant, a former Air Force special operations member who served as chief of civilian harm assessments at the Pentagon's Civilian Protection Center of Excellence, said service members and their families depend on commissaries for affordable groceries. Disruptions could force them to shop elsewhere at higher prices. Military installations abroad rely on regular food supplies through commissary systems as well.
The investigation highlights a potential security gap in military infrastructure where refrigeration systems may be vulnerable to remote exploitation. If confirmed as cyberattacks, the incidents would represent an attack on a supply chain essential to military readiness and personnel welfare. The parallel French case — where hackers remotely altered temperature controls — suggests a deliberate targeting of refrigeration infrastructure across multiple sectors and countries, raising questions about the attacker's motive and capabilities. Investigators are still determining who might be responsible and whether the U.S. and French incidents are connected.
It remains unclear whether investigators have conclusively determined what caused the failures or whether the U.S. and French incidents share a common origin.