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The Department of the Army Criminal Investigation Division is investigating mysterious freezer and refrigerator malfunctions that spoiled food at military bases across the U.S. amid concerns the outages may have been caused by a cyberattack.
Army CID’s Cyber Field Office is working with the Defense Commissary Agency and the Defense Criminal Investigative Service to determine what caused the refrigeration failures at military commissaries in August, an Army CID spokesperson confirmed to Fox News.
Investigators are also working with French law enforcement to understand a series of refrigeration outages in Europe as authorities examine whether the incidents could be connected.
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A woman walks past empty fresh-food refrigerators at an Intermarché supermarket in Névez, western France, on October 12, 2026, following a cyberattack affecting the French supermarket chains Intermarché and Cooperative U that caused their refrigerators to defrost. (Fred TANNEAU / AFP via Getty Images)
The story was first reported by Reuters. In late August, at least six commissaries, or on-base stores where military personnel buy food, suddenly experienced refrigeration malfunctions, according to the outlet.
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Investigators are examining whether the mysterious refrigeration failures were caused by a cyberattack, though officials have not publicly determined what caused the malfunctions or who may have been responsible. (iStock via Getty Images)
Fort Huachuca in Arizona said in an Aug. 26 Facebook post that a freezer “went into defrost mode where it heated up all the food,” according to Reuters.
“Trust us when we say it was ‘spoiled,’” the base said.
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In at least one case, refrigeration units’ temperatures were turned up overnight, leaving large quantities of food wilted or spoiled by morning, Reuters reported.
Several weeks ago, a suspected cyberattack targeted hundreds of French supermarkets, with hackers allegedly manipulating refrigerators to reach temperatures of 122 degrees Fahrenheit. The temperature spike spoiled large quantities of food and sparked fires across Europe.