Refrigeration systems at three regional French blood banks were targeted in a cyber attack, as hackers also interfered with supermarket cooling units across eight European countries.
The incident affected monitoring and control systems for cold storage rooms operated by the French Blood Establishment (EFS), France’s health ministry said.
Blood supplies were not disrupted after the attack, which took place overnight between Sunday and Monday. EFS spokesperson Charley Dubois said staff were alerted to the problem and transferred blood to refrigerators that were not connected to the affected systems.
“We have staff round the clock since blood can be needed at any time,” she said.
“They were warned about the problems by alerts and moved the blood to other refrigerators that were not connected.”
The French health ministry said the situation was under control by Wednesday and that remote access to the affected refrigeration systems had been disabled.
Investigators are examining how the attack was carried out, which equipment may have been affected and when the systems can safely be put back into service.
Cyber attack linked to wider refrigeration incidents
The blood bank incident came as hackers tampered with refrigerators at stores in eight European countries, forcing retailers to throw away large quantities of food.
The disruption echoed an attack in France three weeks earlier, when police said hackers had taken control of cooling units at hundreds of supermarkets, resulting in fires and food losses.
The incidents have prompted concern in the European Union about vulnerabilities in connected infrastructure amid heightened security tensions since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
