Hackers compromised cold storage units holding blood products at three French blood bank sites, French authorities confirmed Wednesday, November 4.
This marks a dangerous escalation in a wave of cyberattacks on connected refrigeration systems across Europe.
The French Blood Establishment (EFS) said the attack occurred overnight between Sunday and Monday and was not a direct strike, as external providers operating the cold rooms were hit.
Hackers raised temperatures and defrost thresholds to “excessively high levels,” threatening frozen plasma used for transfusions and medicine manufacturing, as well as samples stored for biobanks.
Alarm systems triggered quickly, allowing staff to move blood products to unconnected backup refrigerators. No blood products or samples were lost, and no health impact was identified.
The EFS has alerted France’s national cybersecurity agency (ANSSI) and the health ministry, and has reinforced monitoring of its equipment.
The incident coincided with attacks on supermarket refrigerators in nearly a dozen European countries, including Belgium, Sweden, Finland, Italy, Germany, and the UK, where temperatures soared as high as 50 degrees Celsius, spoiling millions of euros of food.
Hackers recently gained control of the cooling systems at about 700 French supermarkets, resulting in the start of fires and destruction of food items.
The motive behind the attack remains unknown, and there is no group taking responsibility for it. “It’s not an isolated event,” EU spokesman Thomas Regnier said, urging collective resilience, as Italy conducted emergency intelligence meetings. There is increasing speculation that this might be a form of hybrid warfare, with Western intelligence services believing it is sabotage by Russia after its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
