French blood banks disrupted by cyberattack on refrigeration units
A cyberattack on refrigeration systems used by French blood banks raised temperatures in storage units, but no blood products were lost.
French blood banks were impacted on Monday by a wave of cyberattacks targeting refrigeration systems across Europe, the French Blood Establishment said on Wednesday. The attacks affected cold storage units operated by third-party providers that hold blood products for the national blood service (EFS) at three sites. According to an EFS statement, hackers set temperature and defrost thresholds to excessively high levels, causing the units to heat up.
"Specifically, temperature and defrost thresholds were set to excessively high levels," the EFS said.
The affected units store blood products before they are delivered to hospitals, as well as samples for biobanks and frozen plasma used in transfusions. The EFS reported that its monitoring systems detected the anomalies quickly. Depending on the situation, equipment was either brought back under control without affecting the stored material or taken offline. No blood products or samples were lost, and any at risk were transferred to other facilities.
The EFS is working with the French National Cybersecurity Agency (ANSSI) and the Ministry of Health to increase monitoring and strengthen defenses on its equipment.