Cyberattacks on refrigerators also hit French blood banks; supplies unaffected, agency says

France's blood collection service has confirmed that its refrigerators were also hit by cyberattacks. The incident appears to be connected to a recent wave of cyberattacks on supermarket refrigerators across Europe, though blood supplies were not affected.

The French Blood Establishment (EFS) said on Tuesday that the monitoring and control systems for cold storage rooms deployed at three of its sites were affected. In those systems, temperature and defrosting thresholds had been raised to 'very high levels'.

The EFS said it was not the direct target of the cyberattacks and that no blood samples or products were compromised. The blood stored in the affected equipment, which included plasma bags for transfusions, has been 'transferred or secured', the agency said.

The incident appears linked to a fresh wave of cyberattacks on supermarket refrigerators across Europe, which forced stores to throw out spoiled food. That wave came just weeks after French supermarkets were first hit by a cyberattack that also targeted refrigerators.

In the attacks on supermarkets, refrigerator defrost settings were manipulated so the coolers reached very high temperatures, mirroring the EFS's experience. Dozens of store refrigerators across five countries saw their temperatures raised remotely.

French media reports said refrigeration company Coolworld is the supplier to the EFS. The company said in a statement that it is aware of the incident and that it 'concerns a component supplied by a third-party provider and not directly controlled by Coolworld'. Only a 'limited number' of its units were affected, the company said.

France's digital minister Anne Le Hénanff told the country's Senate today that the recent attacks on the country's refrigerators 'have directly targeted our economy and our supply chain'. She added: 'I would even go so far as to say that, beyond that, their objective may potentially be to undermine the unity of our country and to create anxiety among the population.'

Nobody yet knows who hacked Europe's supermarkets. But many are looking to Moscow.