Your lights do not have to go out for the food in cold storage to become unusable. On November 5 the FBI, CISA, HHS, USDA and DOT issued a joint warning about malicious activity targeting industrial refrigeration and cold-chain systems. Food and healthcare operators are among those exposed. The warning describes attacks on temperature controls and monitoring. Remote access to machinery has consequences beyond stolen files: an operator has to know the real temperature and stop an unsafe change.
France’s blood service stopped one. Attackers changed settings at three sites. Independent alarms reached a person, the person acted, and no product was lost. The Pentagon is investigating American commissary failures as a suspected hack. A shared cause and an attacker have not been established. This is a systems problem with practical safeguards, not proof that the food supply has shut down.
A running compressor and a normal screen do not prove the contents stayed at a safe temperature. Dependence on one remote supplier is a shared point of failure: one store loses stock and customers drive farther.
The X is depending on cold storage without a temperature check, a response plan or another source for essential supplies.
Three moves this week. Put an appliance thermometer in the refrigerator and the freezer and record the normal readings. Keep three days of meals that need no refrigeration, food your family already eats. Get your pharmacist’s temperature limits and replacement procedure in writing for every refrigerated medicine, and confirm a second pharmacy.
Today’s SITREP has the warning signs and the full breakdown. 🧊