Hackers Hijack Refrigeration Systems at French Blood Banks, Staff Move Blood to Safety

French authorities say a cyber attack on several blood banks was contained before it could affect blood supplies. The refrigerators at three regional facilities run by the French Blood Establishment (EFS) were hit overnight from Sunday into Monday. The health ministry said the incident affected certain cold storage room monitoring and control systems. France's national cybersecurity agency and the Health Ministry are investigating.

EFS spokesperson Charley Dubois said staff are on duty around the clock and were warned by alerts. They moved the blood to other refrigerators that were not connected to the affected systems. By Wednesday, local time, the situation was under control and remote access to the affected refrigerators had been disabled. Investigators are still working out how the attack was carried out, what equipment may have been affected and when systems can safely return to service.

The attack happened at the same time hackers tampered with refrigerators at stores in eight European countries, from Sweden to Belgium, forcing retailers to discard large quantities of food. It followed a similar incident in France last month, when police said hackers seized control of cooling units at hundreds of supermarkets, causing fires and food losses. The incidents have raised concern in the European Union about previously unknown vulnerabilities in connected infrastructure, amid growing security tensions since Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.