The French Blood Institution (EFS) stated on the 3rd that three cold storage facilities in France where important blood products are stored were targeted by a cyberattack, causing the temperature of the cold storage facilities to be set at an "extremely high level." Fortunately, the alarm system issued a warning in time, allowing technicians to take intervention measures before the blood products were damaged.
The attack occurred from the evening of the 1st to the early morning of the 2nd local time. Meanwhile, the temperatures in the refrigerators and freezing equipment in supermarkets in nearly ten European countries rose abnormally high. In some facilities, the temperature even reached 50 degrees Celsius, resulting in food losses worth millions of euros.
EFS is a French public blood transfusion service organization that is responsible for collecting, testing, preparing, and distributing products such as blood, plasma, and platelets. It provides services to over 1,900 hospitals across France.
EFS indicates that the institution itself is not a direct target of the hackers' attacks. The cold storage managed by its contractors was the one that was attacked.
The blood products stored in the affected coolrooms, including bagged plasma used for blood transfusions and pharmaceutical production, have been transferred to other locations.
The agency stated that the technical team is in contact with the French National Information Systems Security Agency and the Ministry of Health, and is strengthening the monitoring of the operation of all equipment.
Last month, a series of similar cyberattacks occurred in France, where hackers controlled the refrigeration equipment of up to 700 supermarkets. On Wednesday (April 4th), a source revealed that Crédit Mutuel Arkéa, a subsidiary of the French mutual credit banking group, was also targeted by hackers. The company's computer systems were compromised, resulting in losses of over $100 million.
