Hackers breach cooling systems at French blood plasma storage facilities

Hackers remotely altered temperature settings at multiple French blood plasma storage facilities, but monitoring systems detected the changes in time, preventing damage to blood units. No health consequences were reported, and an investigation is underway.

A cyberattack against three storage facilities of the French National Blood Service was thwarted before any damage was done to blood units and medical samples, authorities announced. The attackers managed to remotely change the temperature and thawing settings in the cooling systems, raising them to abnormal levels. The attack occurred on Monday and targeted the cooling equipment supplier of three plasma storage facilities, which held plasma bags for blood transfusions and plasma for drug manufacturing. Monitoring and alarm systems quickly detected the changes, allowing teams to transfer or secure the units. Authorities stressed that no blood units were lost and no health consequences were identified. France's national cybersecurity agency and the Ministry of Health have launched an investigation. The incident comes amid a series of similar attacks in Europe on supermarket cooling systems, where temperatures were raised to 55 degrees Celsius. Many of the affected refrigerators ran on software from Danish company Danfoss, and researchers warned in August about vulnerabilities in the system.