Cyberattack Hits French Blood Bank Site But No Blood Products Were Compromised

 

Paris: A cyberattack on several blood banks sought to raise temperatures to extremely high levels but was thwarted before it could do any damage to blood products or samples, French authorities said.

The incident comes after supermarkets in a number of European countries reported this week that their fridges and freezers warmed up after they were remotely taken over, resulting in tons of spoiled food at a total cost of millions of dollars (euros).

 

The French Blood Establishment, or EFS, said “temperature and defrosting thresholds were raised to extremely high levels” on Monday at three of its cold-storage sites for plasma, in a statement released late Tuesday.

“No health consequences have been identified, and no blood products were lost,” it said. The cyberattack hit a supplier of refrigeration equipment at three EFS sites.

The products stored were bags of plasma intended for transfusions and plasma used to manufacture medicines, and were either transferred or secured, the statement said.