Hackers breached the remote systems of three French blood banks and tried to push freezer temperatures to 230 degrees Fahrenheit in a bid to destroy life-saving supplies, France’s health ministry confirmed Wednesday.
Charley Dubois, a spokesperson for the French Blood Establishment (EFS), said staff at the facilities acted fast enough to save the blood. “We have staff round the clock since blood can be needed at any time. They were warned about the problems by alerts and moved the blood to other refrigerators that were not connected,” she said.
The targeted systems were “cold storage room monitoring and control systems” at three regional blood banks, the ministry said. The equipment was back under operator control by Wednesday, with remote access now disabled.
The French weekly La Canard Enchaîné first reported the cyberattack, noting the hackers appeared to try to reset temperatures from negative 22 degrees to 230 degrees Fahrenheit. The ministry did not confirm the exact target temperature in its own statement.
The blood bank hack landed during a broader wave of attacks on internet-connected refrigeration across Europe. Freezer units at stores across eight countries — including major retailers in Sweden, Belgium, Luxembourg and Estonia — were hit the same day, with systems pushed to 122 degrees Fahrenheit and groceries spoiled.
That supermarket campaign followed a string of similar incidents last month in France alone, where hundreds of supermarket fridges were hacked, resulting in fires and food losses. The European Union has grown increasingly alarmed about infrastructure vulnerabilities as suspected Russian sabotage operations have escalated.
The Pentagon, too, is now scrutinizing its own cold storage. Last week it said it was treating an August freezer malfunction at six military bases as a potential cyberattack.
Investigations are underway to determine how the hackers gained access to the freezing units and when the systems can safely return to service.
The blood bank incident marks the second major European cold-storage cyberattack in a week, following the supermarket breaches that caused thousands of dollars in meat and dairy spoilage. Unlike those cases, the blood supplies were rescued before destruction.