Article By Frank Bergman
The FBI has issued an urgent alert to the American people to prepare for major shortages, warning that hackers are targeting America’s food, medicine, and other essential supplies.
The chilling alert follows a wave of cyberattacks on supermarkets across Europe and unexplained refrigeration failures that destroyed food at six U.S. military commissaries.
Hackers remotely raised temperatures in refrigerators and freezers at stores in Sweden, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Estonia, forcing retailers to throw away spoiled food.
French authorities have just revealed that Iran may be behind the attacks.
Now, the FBI is warning that the same vulnerabilities exist across the United States.
“The FBI and our partners are seeing malicious cyber activity targeting industrial refrigeration and cold-chain monitoring systems around the world,” the FBI Cyber Branch said in a public warning.
“These systems help keep food, medicine, and other products at safe temperatures and are widely used across critical infrastructure sectors,” the FBI added.
Hackers Target Refrigerators, Freezers, and Blood Storage
The FBI warned that attackers are exploiting electronic temperature and refrigeration controllers used by grocery stores, cold-storage facilities, and other critical infrastructure operators.
The systems have also been targeted at three foreign blood-service facilities.
“While this attack was unsuccessful due to the proper alert mechanisms in place, security weaknesses in unpatched or internet-accessible controllers can allow attackers to change system settings, potentially causing inventory loss and equipment damage,” the FBI warned.
The agency urged American operators to remove vulnerable controllers from the public internet, use firewalls to limit access, replace default passwords, understand how vendors configure devices, set safe temperature limits, and ensure alerts reach the correct personnel.
FBI Cyber Division Assistant Director Brett Leatherman warned that the threat reaches far beyond supermarket shelves.
“These systems protect food and medicine across healthcare, food and agriculture, and other critical sectors here in the United States as well,” Leatherman said.
“Attackers are getting in through controllers that are unpatched, reachable from the internet, or still using the default passwords listed in the manufacturer’s manual,” he added.
Military Commissaries Hit as Investigators Probe Possible Link
The warning comes after freezer failures at six U.S. military base commissaries in August ruined large quantities of food.
The Army Criminal Investigation Division’s Cyber Field Office, the Defense Commissary Agency, and the Defense Criminal Investigative Service are working with French law enforcement to determine whether the incidents were connected to the attacks in Europe.
Former FBI Special Agent Nicole Parker warned that hostile actors could target the food supply to inflict panic and undermine public confidence without firing a single shot.
“What we’re seeing right now is in Europe and other places, but it can very well happen on our soil,” Parker told Fox News Digital.
Parker warned that such attacks could become a form of “psychological warfare” against the American people.
WATCH:
America’s Grocery Stores Could Be Next
Sean Tufts, field chief technology officer at cybersecurity firm Claroty, warned that U.S. grocery stores should treat the European attacks as a direct warning.
“U.S. supermarkets should absolutely be paying attention to what is happening in Europe,” Tufts said.
“The same types of refrigeration controllers are used across the food retail industry, and many use remote connections so technicians can monitor equipment and make repairs without visiting every store,” Tufts added.
“When those connections aren’t properly secured, they can give attackers a way to interfere with systems that grocery stores depend on every day.”
Tufts warned that every organization handling temperature-sensitive products could be at risk.
“True cyber resilience means getting ahead of risks by understanding where your systems are exposed before attackers do,” Tufts said.
“Acting only after the ice cream melts and the food waste piles up is too late, and is a consequence the food supply chain can’t continue to bear.”
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