Supplier Hack Pushes Up Temperatures at Three French Blood Bank Sites

France's public blood service says a cyberattack on one of its refrigeration suppliers forced temperatures up in cold storage rooms at three of its sites, The Epoch Times reports. The service says no blood products or samples were lost.

Key points

• What happened: In a Nov. 3 statement, the French Blood Establishment (EFS) said the attack, which was stopped on Monday, hit an equipment supplier and not the EFS itself.
• Response: The EFS credited its monitoring and alarm systems with spotting the problem quickly. Plasma and other products in the affected rooms were moved to other facilities as a precaution, and service to patients continued.
• Investigation: France's National Cybersecurity Agency, known as ANSSI, and the Ministry of Health are looking into the incident.
• Wider pattern: On Nov. 2, supermarket chains in Belgium, Luxembourg, Sweden, Italy and Germany reported hacks that drove fridge and freezer temperatures to 122 degrees Fahrenheit. Carrefour saw attacks on 15 stores in Belgium, and some stores had to throw out food.

Quick take

The report ties the blood service incident to an October attack in which hackers took remote control of refrigeration systems at hundreds of stores across France. Frank Groenewegen, a cybersecurity expert at Deloitte in The Hague, is quoted saying retailers should check whether their networked controllers are vulnerable and keep them updated, or pull them off the public internet if they do not know.

Read the full story at The Epoch Times.