Hackers tried to thaw plasma storage units in France

A cyberattack on the refrigeration equipment at three plasma storage facilities operated by the French Blood Establishment (EFS) sought to raise the temperature from minus 30 to 110 degrees, but monitoring systems detected the malfunction in time, and no blood products were affected.

The French Blood Establishment (EFS) said that on Monday, November 2, “temperature and thawing thresholds were raised to extremely high levels” at three of its plasma storage sites. Monitoring systems quickly detected the problem, and staff were able to take action in time. As EFS emphasized, “no blood product or sample was affected.”

According to the French weekly Le Canard enchaîné, which first reported the cyberattack, the attackers tried to change the temperature from its usual minus 30 degrees Celsius to 110 degrees. The attack targeted the refrigeration equipment supplier. The storage facilities held plasma bags for transfusions and plasma used to produce medicines; they were moved to other facilities or protected.

Blood plasma bag during a plasmapheresis procedure in France (archive)

Supplier Coolworld said the vulnerability concerned a component made by a third-party manufacturer and was outside its direct control. France’s National Agency for the Security of Information Systems and the health ministry are investigating. It is not yet known who was behind the attack. Blood collection and distribution are continuing as usual.

The incident occurred after hackers remotely disabled refrigerators and freezers at hundreds of supermarkets in France, Belgium and the Netherlands in mid-October. Dutch chain Ahold Delhaize expects that the attack will reduce its fourth-quarter sales by up to 250 million euros.

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