French blood banks targeted by refrigerator cyberattack
A cyberattack had attempted to destroy blood plasma by raising the temperatures in cold storage facilities past the boiling point.
On Wednesday, French authorities revealed that blood banks in France were among several European targets of a cyberattack on refrigeration systems over the weekend. The French Blood Establishment (EFS) announced that the attack focused on a refrigeration service provider, impacting three cold storage sites for plasma and blood samples.
The aim of the cyberattack was to increase temperatures to dangerously high levels, but the system managed to prevent any damage. The plasma in the affected refrigerators was either transferred or secured, and no health issues or blood product losses were reported. The EFS noted that their distribution operations remained uninterrupted.
French cybersecurity agency and Health Ministry confirmed they were investigating the incident, though they did not specify the potential culprit. Upon discovering the anomalies, monitoring and alarm systems were activated, allowing staff to take action and prevent any compromise of blood products or samples. In response to the attack, France's Health Ministry disabled remote access to the affected refrigerators and acknowledged the monitoring and alarm systems' role in safeguarding blood supplies.
Coolworld, the supplier of the refrigeration equipment, attributed the vulnerability to a third-party component and clarified that they had no control over the issue. Earlier this week, the cyberattack extended to supermarkets across several European countries, including France and Germany, causing significant damage to frozen food. This was reminiscent of a similar attack three weeks ago that targeted the refrigeration systems of dozens of French supermarkets, resulting in millions of euros' worth of wasted food.
On Wednesday, Dutch supermarket chain Ahold Delhaize announced it expects the recent cyberattack to reduce its quarterly sales by up to €250 million ($281 million). While the disruption was mostly contained within two weeks, the company's CEO, Franz Muller, stated that work continues to fully restore normal operations.
Written by urgent.news from DW News's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
