Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon Faces Questions After Military Freezer Failures

A string of freezer failures at U.S. military commissaries has drawn attention to vulnerabilities in systems that regulate food storage—and added another challenge for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon, according to the report. Reuters reported that temperatures were altered at freezers in at least six commissaries in August. In one incident, the temperature was raised enough to thaw and spoil food. The Fort Huachuca, Arizona, Facebook page said its freezer had entered a defrost mode that heated the food, which the post described as spoiled. The incidents have similarities to a suspected cyberattack on refrigeration equipment at French supermarkets in October. Frozen-food aisles were cleared after refrigeration units were affected, and the report said food was ruined at as many as 700 stores. In some cases in France, temperature changes reportedly sparked fires and set off sprinkler systems. It was not clear whether investigators had identified those responsible for the U.S. incidents. French authorities had also not publicly named suspects. A Department of Defense official told the Daily Beast that a Cyber Command unit was working with interagency and law-enforcement partners in response. An Army Criminal Investigation Division spokesperson told the Daily Telegraph that U.S. military investigators were cooperating with French authorities to determine what caused the outages. Experts cited in the coverage said the incidents may have involved weaknesses in internet-connected controls used to manage refrigeration temperatures. The report placed the cases amid broader concerns about attacks on critical infrastructure, including food, water, telecommunications and energy systems. The FBI said in July that hackers had targeted water operators in at least seven states, with some activity disrupting operations. The freezer incidents come amid other reported breaches affecting military digital systems. In September, hackers accessed data belonging to three million U.S. military members, including Social Security information, according to the article. The report did not say whether that breach was connected to the commissary incidents.