Cyberattacks against blood banks in France: the refrigerators go from -30ºC to 110ºC

ParisThe same night that dozens of supermarkets in several European countries suffered a cyberattack that ruined tons of food, some blood banks in France were also the target of a very similar attack by unknown hackers. As the French Ministry of Health confirmed this Wednesday, during the night from Sunday to Monday, cybercriminals accessed the computer program that regulates the temperature of the cold storage rooms where plasma bags are stored remotely and reprogrammed them so that the temperature went from -30 ºC to 110 ºC.

The hackers attacked the private company Coolworld, which is in charge of the maintenance of the refrigeration facilities of the French public body that manages the collection, storage, and distribution of blood to hospitals (EFS). "The EFS has not been a direct victim of a cybersecurity incident. It was our refrigeration service provider that suffered a cybersecurity incident that could affect some monitoring and control facilities of cold storage rooms deployed in various centers," the public body pointed out in a statement.

It also specified that the refrigerators that were subject to the cyberattack mainly contained plasma bags intended for transfusions and others intended for laboratories. According to the French weekly Le Canard Enchaîné, the blood banks most affected are those in the Burgundy-Franche-Comté region.

Without health consequences

Despite the seriousness of the attack, it has not had serious consequences because a worker who was on duty noticed the anomaly in the temperature of the cold storage rooms and acted quickly. "There is no operational consequence, because the situation was detected in time," the Ministry of Health assured. "The products stored in the affected equipment – plasma bags intended for transfusion and plasma bags intended for the manufacture of medicines – have been moved or protected," the EFS explained.

The Ministry of Health has explained that it is working to collect more information about the incident and to know for sure how many cold storage rooms have been affected. "The situation is already under control and is being closely monitored," Health underlined.

The blood bank incident occurred just three weeks after the cyberattack suffered by hundreds of French supermarkets and other European countries with a very similar modus operandi. Back then, cybercriminals remotely increased the temperature of refrigerators and freezers in different supermarkets overnight in an incident that is still being investigated and that caused million-euro losses.