temperaturoverfald

Temperaturoverfald is a term used in Dutch-language discourse to describe the deliberate manipulation or falsification of temperature data. It covers acts that aim to misrepresent the actual temperature by altering sensor readings, calibration records, or data logs. The concept is relevant wherever accurate temperature information is critical for safety, compliance, or decision making.

Contexts include climate research and meteorology, the food and pharmaceutical cold chain, building management systems, and industrial processes. Common methods range from physical tampering with sensors or data loggers, to replacing sensors with more favorable instruments, to altering timestamps or recalibrating instruments to produce desired readings. Data can be erased or selectively reported.

Motives vary from reducing energy costs, meeting regulatory targets, masking spoilage or inefficiency, to gaining insurance payments or influencing policy decisions. The consequences can be severe, undermining scientific integrity, compromising food safety, causing financial losses, or creating safety risks in sensitive environments.

Detection and prevention rely on data integrity practices, including redundant sensors, independent validation networks, tamper-evident seals, secure communications, cryptographic signing of logs, and thorough audits. Organizations emphasize access control, traceability, anomaly detection, and transparent reporting to deter tampering and enable prompt correction when irregularities are found.

In many jurisdictions temperaturoverfald may be prosecuted as fraud, falsification of records. See also data integrity, sensor tampering, calibration.