Hackers target French blood banks in wider European cyberattack
Hackers accessed control systems at three cold stores used by contractors for France’s national blood service (EFS), raising refrigeration and defrosting thresholds to “very high levels” overnight on Monday. The affected facilities held vital supplies including plasma for transfusions and medicine production, but alarm systems alerted technicians in time for them to intervene before the products were compromised. The stock was then moved to other sites, and EFS said its own equipment was being monitored more closely.
The incident appears connected to a broader wave of attacks on internet-connected refrigeration systems. Fridges and freezers in supermarkets across almost a dozen European countries, including Italy, Germany, Romania, the UK, Belgium, Estonia, Ireland, Finland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Sweden, have malfunctioned or been manipulated. In France, hackers reportedly seized control of cooling units in as many as 700 supermarkets last month, while a regional Crédit Mutuel branch also reported an attack. No culprit or motive has been established, although European authorities are considering possible state-backed sabotage as well as lone-wolf activity. France’s cybersecurity agency and health ministry have been alerted.
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