France's national blood service, the EFS, confirmed that defrosting and temperature settings were significantly elevated overnight on Monday at three contractor-managed cold stores. Technicians responded quickly to sounding alarms, preventing physical damage and safely relocating all stored blood products to alternative facilities. The intrusion follows prior cyber-attacks on refrigeration units across nearly a dozen European nations, which recently caused millions of euros in food spoilage across approximately 700 French supermarkets. European Union agencies and national authorities are currently coordinating an emergency response, while Western intelligence officials examine potential lin…
Key points
Hackers are increasingly targeting industrial temperature control systems, moving from re…: Hackers are increasingly targeting industrial temperature control systems, moving from retail food stores to vital national health infrastructure.
The Pentagon has launched an investigation into whether suspected cyber intrusions caused…: The Pentagon has launched an investigation into whether suspected cyber intrusions caused cooling failures at six U.S. military commissaries in August.
European Union officials are holding urgent discussions to formulate a collective respons…: European Union officials are holding urgent discussions to formulate a collective response while investigators weigh potential state-sponsored sabotage against lone-wolf actors.
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France’s national blood service has said hackers accessed control systems and boosted temperatures at three cold stores stocking vital blood products, in an apparent escalation of recent cyber-attacks on fridges and freezers across Europe.
The French blood service (EFS) said temperature and defrosting thresholds had been raised to “very high levels” in the attack, adding that its alarm systems had allowed technicians to intervene before the products were compromised.
The EFS is France’s public blood transfusion operator, collecting, testing, preparing and distributing products such as blood, plasma and platelets to more than 1,900 hospitals around the country. It supports more than a million patients a year.
The attack, which EFS said had occurred overnight on Monday, came as the temperatures of refrigerators and freezers in supermarkets in almost a dozen European countries soared as high as 50C (122F), causing millions of euros of food damage.
Retailers in Italy, Germany, Romania and the UK were targeted on Tuesday, after Belgium, Estonia, Ireland, Finland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Sweden reported problems with their refrigeration systems the previous day.
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