Pentagon Treats Base Freezer Failures as Suspected Cyberattack

The Pentagon is treating freezer failures that spoiled food at at least six U.S. military-base commissaries in late August as a suspected cyberattack, according to four officials familiar with the matter. The cause and any responsible party have not been confirmed. The failures affected commissaries, stores on military bases where personnel buy food, according to a review of contemporaneous base posts and website updates. In at least one case, cooling units’ temperatures rose overnight rather than simply shutting down, leaving food spoiled by morning. Fort Huachuca in Arizona reported that its freezers entered defrost mode on August 26, spoiling frozen food. Its Facebook account also described outages affecting produce and other refrigerated items. The commissary said frozen food was unavailable while employees removed spoiled products. The U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division said its Cyber Field Office was involved and working with French law enforcement to understand refrigeration outages in Europe. The Pentagon said a Cyber Command unit was coordinating with interagency and law-enforcement partners, but did not say whether investigators had determined what caused the...