Cyberattack Targets French Blood Bank Fridges

Authored by Victoria Friedman via The Epoch Times,

A cyberattack against the refrigerator systems of France’s public blood service was thwarted on Monday, officials have said, the incident coming after supermarkets across Europe reported that their cooling equipment was targeted by hackers.

The French Blood Establishment (EFS) said in a Nov. 3 statement that one of its refrigeration equipment suppliers had been targeted, resulting in temperatures being forced to rise in the cold storage rooms at three of its sites.

“The EFS’s monitoring and alarm systems enabled the rapid identification of these anomalies and the implementation of necessary measures to ensure that no blood samples or products were compromised,” the statement said.

It said that affected equipment was brought under control and that no blood products or samples were impacted or ruined.

It added that blood products, including plasma needed for transfusion, which had been stored in these rooms, were transferred to other facilities as a precaution.

Service to patients was not interrupted by the incident, the EFS said.

The EFS stressed that it was not targeted itself, but rather the equipment supplier was.

The organization stores blood products, including plasma, in its preparation and distribution sites before they are sent on to hospitals and other kinds of healthcare facilities. It also keeps blood samples for its biobanks.

France’s National Cybersecurity Agency, or ANSSI, and the French Ministry of Health are investigating the incident, the EFS said.

The cyberattack follows incidents across Europe on Monday, where supermarkets reported their freezers and refrigerators being tampered with remotely, with temperatures being forced to rise.

European Supermarket Refrigerators Hacked

On Nov. 2, several supermarket chains across a number of countries in Europe reported hacks that forced temperatures in their store refrigerators and freezers to rise to 122 degrees Fahrenheit.

Countries affected include Belgium, Luxembourg, Sweden, Italy, and Germany. Several stores were forced to throw away food.

Frank Groenewegen, cybersecurity expert at Deloitte in The Hague, said that retailers should identify whether their refrigerator and freezer controllers are vulnerable, and, if they are networked, ensure the system has the latest security updates.

“If they don’t even know, then remove them from the public internet immediately,” he said.

“With disconnecting, you haven’t fixed the root cause but you’ve at least isolated those systems so that an attacker is not able to do this anymore.”

Many European supermarkets are run by independent business owners in a cooperative structure, meaning their systems might not be the same as other stores under the brand.

However, even integrated supermarket groups were hit. French multinational supermarket Carrefour, which had 80 franchised stores subjected to cyberattacks last month, experienced attacks against 15 stores in Belgium on Monday.

The incidents follow an October attack in France, in which hackers remotely took control of refrigeration systems in hundreds of supermarkets and independent stores across the country, also forcing temperatures to rise.

Reuters contributed to this report.