Hackers target France’s blood bank freezers, reprogram storage to 110°C
They reprogrammed cold storage units, typically kept at a freezing −30°C to safely preserve blood products, by pushing temperature settings up to 110°C (230°F)
A significant cyberattack struck the cold storage facilities of France's national blood agency, Etablissement Francais du Sang (EFS), after hackers infiltrated the systems to remotely heat freezers containing donor blood samples and plasma. The breach occurred between November 1 and 2, when unauthorized individuals compromised Coolworld, a crucial refrigeration maintenance contractor for EFS.
They manipulated the cold storage units, which typically maintain a freezing temperature of −30°C to preserve blood products, by altering the temperature settings to rise as high as 110°C (230°F). However, an on-duty technician detected this abnormal overnight temperature increase on monitoring systems, preventing potential damage.
Technical teams swiftly intervened due to rapid emergency protocols, averting any permanent harm to the inventory. The Ministry of Health confirmed that the breach was contained with no disruption to hospital supplies or transfusion services. Although EFS initially reported that the affected containers held routine health-monitoring blood samples, official statements later revealed that frozen plasma intended for medical transfusions was also stored within the compromised refrigeration units.
The incident occurred concurrently with a wider pattern of cyber intrusions targeting networked industrial cooling systems, affecting supermarket refrigeration in approximately a dozen European countries.
Written by urgent.news from The Hindu - Sci-Tech's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
