Pentagon Investigates Possible Cyberattack on Commissaries
Pentagon Investigates Refrigeration Failures
The Pentagon is currently examining a series of refrigeration failures at military commissaries as potential cyberattacks. These incidents, which occurred in August, impacted over half a dozen locations across various states, raising concerns about food storage safety and security.
Details of the Investigation
Four officials revealed this week that the Defense Criminal Investigative Service is spearheading a joint investigation into the August outages. The affected sites include:
- Fort Irwin, California
- Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico
- Naval Station Newport, Rhode Island
- Little Rock Air Force Base, Arkansas
- F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming
- Robins Air Force Base, Georgia
- Fort Huachuca, Arizona
Expert Opinions
Christopher Whyte, an associate professor of homeland security and emergency preparedness at Virginia Commonwealth University, stated, “You’d be silly not to be suspicious.” He further explained, “Refrigerators give an attacker a weirdly direct route…to financial loss that’s, with cyber, unusually irreversible,” noting that spoiled goods cannot be salvaged once temperatures rise.
Comparative Analysis with French Supermarkets
This investigation draws parallels to recent incidents in France, where hackers compromised refrigeration systems in supermarkets, raising temperatures to over 122 degrees Fahrenheit. The attack affected:
- 80 Carrefour locations
- Approximately 20 Monoprix stores
- 150 Intermarché stores
The Paris prosecutor’s office labeled these outages as a large-scale attack, with Intermarché and E.Leclerc reporting combined losses of around €270,000 due to spoiled stock. Whyte emphasized, “You can’t unspoil food or other products from these freezers. It’s just Euros and dollars down the drain.”
Current Status of the Investigation
The Pentagon has refrained from commenting on the ongoing law enforcement investigation, stating, “For security reasons, we do not comment on ongoing law enforcement investigations.” This leaves the public without a clear determination regarding whether the commissary failures were indeed the result of a cyberattack.
The immediate concern for the affected commissaries revolves around whether the losses stem from a cyber incident or a non-cyber-related equipment failure. This distinction is crucial, as it dictates the direction of the investigation and the evidence required.
Concluding Remarks
For those shopping at the affected commissaries, it is important to note that while the investigation is ongoing, the allegations remain unverified. The probe, led by the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, continues to seek clarity on the situation, drawing from recent patterns observed in similar incidents abroad.
Source Reference (el-balad.com): Pentagon Probes 7 Commissary Failures in Military Commissary Refrigeration Cyberattack Probe