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Three French blood banks were attacked by hackers, who were able to crank up the temperatures in freezers from -22 degrees to 230 Fahrenheit in an attempt to ruin the life-saving supplies.
It’s the second time in a week that internet-connected cold storage units in Europe have been corrupted — with thousands of dollars in meat and diary spoiled.
The attack directly targeted “cold storage room monitoring and control systems” at three regional blood banks, France’s health ministry confirmed on Wednesday.
Unlike the supermarket hacks. the blood at the facilities was rescued by the quick acting staffers, French Blood Establishment (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.
The hack appeared to try to reset the temperature of the storage units from negative 22 degrees to 230 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the French weekly La Canard Enchaîné, which first reported the cyberattack.
The equipment at the facilities were back under control on Wednesday, with the refrigerators remote access now disabled, the health ministry added.
The attack coincided with a large-scale cyberattack targeting refrigerators at stores across eight European countries, including major retailers in Sweden, Belgium, Luxembourg and Estonia.
The incident specifically saw the freezer units hacked to reach 122 degrees Fahrenheit, causing groceries to spoil.
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The cyberattacks followed a string of similar incidents last month in France, where hundreds of supermarket fridges were hacked, causing fires and food losses.
The Pentagon also said last week that it was treating an August freezer malfunction at six military bases as a potential cyberattack.
Investigations are under way to learn how the hackers managed to gain access to the freezing units and when the systems can safely return to service.
The incidents have raised worries in the European Union about the vulnerabilities found in its infrastructure at a time when suspected Russian sabotage attacks have been on the rise.
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