Hackers raised cold room temperatures at three sites of France's blood service

Hackers have tampered with the cold rooms of France's national blood service. On 2 November, the control systems of cold storage rooms at three sites of the Établissement français du sang (EFS) were altered so that "temperature and defrosting thresholds were raised to very high levels", the EFS said in a statement on 3 November. According to the blood service, no blood products were lost and patients were not affected. The intrusion came through a refrigeration equipment supplier rather than the EFS's own network.

The cold rooms at EFS preparation and distribution sites hold blood products before they go to hospitals, as well as samples for the service's biobanks. In the rooms that were hit, these were bags of plasma for transfusion and plasma meant to be processed into medicines.

The EFS says its own monitoring and alarm systems spotted the anomalies quickly. Depending on the site, staff either brought the equipment back under control without harm to the contents or switched it off, moving the stored products to other facilities as a precaution. Blood collection and deliveries continue. The service is working with ANSSI, France's national cybersecurity agency, and the health ministry, and has stepped up temperature monitoring on all its equipment.

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