Blood banks hit in France alongside cyberattack on European supermarkets

• Three regional blood banks in France were hit by a cyberattack overnight on Nov 1 to 2. The health ministry said cold storage monitoring systems were affected, but blood supplies were not.
• Hackers also tampered with supermarket refrigerators in eight European countries. Retailers had to throw away large amounts of food, echoing a similar attack in France in October.
• The case has raised EU fears about weak points in connected systems. Investigators are checking how the attack worked, what was affected, and when systems can safely return to service.

PARIS - The refrigerators at three regional blood banks in France were hit by a cyberattack overnight from Nov 1 to 2, at the same time hackers struck supermarkets from Sweden to Belgium.

“Several regional facilities of the French Blood Establishment (EFS) were affected by a cybersecurity incident that impacted certain cold storage room monitoring and control systems,” the health ministry said in a statement.

The incident had no impact on blood supplies, EFS spokesperson Charley Dubois said.

“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.

Around the same time, hackers tampered with refrigerators at stores in eight European countries, forcing retailers to discard large quantities of food, in an attack that echoed an incident affecting dozens of supermarkets in France three weeks earlier.

The situation was under control on Nov 4, the health ministry said, adding that remote access to the affected refrigerators had been disabled.

Investigations are under way into how the attack was carried out, what equipment may have been affected and when systems can safely return to service.

The attack followed a similar incident in France in October when police said hackers seized control of cooling units at hundreds of supermarkets, causing fires and food losses.

The incidents have raised concerns in the European Union about unsuspected vulnerabilities in connected infrastructure amid growing security tensions since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. REUTERS