Did a cyberattack break freezers at US military bases? What is confirmed, and your freezer

What is being shared

Headlines on October 29 said the Pentagon suspects a cyberattack behind freezer malfunctions at US military bases. The failures are not new, and none of the reports involve home freezers.

The failures happened in late August. What is new is that officials have now told reporters they are treating them as a possible hack. We checked what the reports say, and what official food-safety guidance says you should do if your own freezer stops.

What the reports actually say

Reuters reported on Thursday, October 29, that investigators were treating the incidents as a possible hack. We could not open Reuters itself, so we rely on outlets that cite it. The Next Web writes that four officials told Reuters investigators are treating the US incidents as a suspected cyberattack. Nextgov, citing one US official who spoke on condition of anonymity, says the outages affected some six commissaries.

At Fort Huachuca in Arizona, officials reported that a freezer had entered defrost mode and heated its contents, leaving food spoiled, Nextgov reports. Cyber Command and Defense Department law enforcement units are looking into it, and French authorities are working with them. The Pentagon's statement to Reuters, as quoted by The Next Web, said its team was working in close coordination with interagency and law enforcement partners.

What is confirmed, and what is not

Confirmed: freezer and refrigerator problems at several commissaries in late August, with spoiled food. Stars and Stripes listed six affected stores, based on announcements by each installation: Fort Irwin, Calif.; F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyo.; Fort Huachuca, Ariz.; Naval Station Newport, R.I.; Columbus Air Force Base, Miss.; and Travis Air Force Base, Calif. The stores stayed open to sell dry goods.

Also confirmed: the Army Criminal Investigation Division's Cyber Field Office and the Air Force Office of Special Investigations told Stars and Stripes they have active investigations. None said what kind. In August, the Defense Department acknowledged only a possible refrigeration disruption at some commissaries.

Not confirmed: that a hack caused it. Nextgov says it is unclear who might be responsible or whether investigators have conclusively determined what caused the failures. Fox 9 notes it has not been officially established. In August, a defense official told Military Times it would be inappropriate to speculate as to the cause.

Why investigators are looking at hacking

Nextgov notes that the investigation draws attention to the computers that control everyday equipment used to store and handle food. It reports that earlier in October, hackers overrode temperature controls on commercial refrigeration equipment at more than 350 French establishments, forcing supermarkets to discard spoiled food.

The Next Web says Reuters could not establish whether the commissaries used the same maker's equipment, though records for one shop, at Naval Air Facility El Centro in California, list a Danfoss control system. In August, a security firm reported flaws in refrigeration controls made by Danfoss and Copeland. That is a possible lead, not a finding. Investigators have not said whether systems beyond the affected stores were touched.

What it means for your home

Nothing in the reports asks households to do anything, and we found no agency warning about home appliances. The useful part is the reminder that a power outage is the everyday reason a home freezer warms up. USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service says a full freezer will hold the temperature for approximately 48 hours, or 24 hours if it is half full. The refrigerator will keep food safe for up to 4 hours.

USDA says to keep an appliance thermometer in both the fridge and freezer, with the fridge at 40°F or below and the freezer at 0°F or below. A thermometer is how you know, after the fact, what is safe. Our full guide is food safety in a power outage.

• Keep the fridge and freezer doors closed (USDA)
• If the power will be out longer than 4 hours, move fridge food to a cooler with ice or frozen gel packs, enough to keep it at 40°F or below (USDA). Perishables left in a fridge without power for more than 4 hours should be thrown out
• For a long outage, get dry ice or block ice: USDA says fifty pounds of dry ice should hold an 18-cubic-foot freezer for 2 days. Never touch dry ice with bare hands or put it directly on food
• Keep the freezer full: fill gaps with frozen jugs of water, bags of ice or gel packs (USDA)
• Frozen food that has thawed but still has ice crystals, or stayed at 40°F or below, may be safely refrozen; quality may suffer (USDA)

What to throw out afterwards

Ready.gov says to throw away any food that has been exposed to temperatures of 40 degrees or higher for two hours or more, or that has an unusual odor, color or texture. USDA says to discard raw, cooked or leftover meat, poultry, fish and eggs if your fridge has been without power for more than 4 hours.

Ready.gov adds that if the power is out for more than a day, discard any medication that should be refrigerated, unless the label says otherwise, and consult your doctor or pharmacist for a new supply. For the rest of an outage plan, see the power outage checklist.

What not to do

Do not taste food to decide if it is safe: USDA says never taste food to determine its safety. When in doubt, throw it out. Do not unplug or replace a working home freezer because of this story; nothing in it involves home appliances. And you do not need to buy anything new. An appliance thermometer and a cooler you already own cover most of it. If you have neither, a cooler is the one item that earns its place.