France's blood service said on Nov. 4 (local time) that cold rooms holding plasma at three of its sites were hacked, but alarms caught the change and no blood products were lost. The incident follows attacks on supermarket refrigeration across Europe and raises fears that the tactic has spread to healthcare.
According to The Next Web and other outlets, the Etablissement francais du sang (EFS) said in a statement that temperature and defrost thresholds in cold rooms at three sites, which store plasma and samples, were pushed to extreme levels, but alarms flagged it before any damage. EFS said ‘no health impact has been identified and no blood products have been lost’, and that collection and hospital deliveries continue normally.
광고 문의 · 300×250EFS itself was not the target; a refrigeration supplier was. Reports say the supplier was hit on Monday, Nov. 2, and the attack reached systems that monitor and control the cold rooms. The rooms held plasma for transfusion, plasma for drug manufacturing and biobank samples.
How hot did it get
Temperature figures differ by outlet. The satirical weekly Le Canard enchaine reported readings of 110C and named the supplier, but EFS has confirmed neither the name nor the figure. An EFS official was quoted as telling local radio that readings reached 110C and even 150C. Plasma is normally stored at about minus 25C, so the numbers may reflect manipulated settings or displays rather than actual equipment temperatures, which needs further confirmation.
France's cybersecurity agency ANSSI and the health ministry are investigating with EFS, which has stepped up temperature monitoring on all its equipment. No one has claimed the attack, and the entry route and the number of devices affected have not been established.
From supermarkets to military bases
South Korea's Kyunghyang Shinmun, citing Reuters, reported late last month that temperatures in refrigeration units at hundreds of French supermarkets rose to about 50C, causing fires and mass disposal of food, and that the US Army Criminal Investigation Division is examining whether simultaneous freezer failures at six US military base stores were also a cyberattack. US investigators were reported to be coordinating with French judicial authorities on possible links.
Separately, reports say remote takeovers of fridges and freezers have hit supermarkets in at least six EU countries, prompting a European Commission review of retailers' defences. Whether the blood service attack was carried out by the same actor as the supermarket and base incidents has not been confirmed. Experts point to internet-connected, poorly protected cooling-control systems as a common weakness, but that is an expert assessment, not an investigative finding.
