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Hackers targeted refrigeration systems at three regional blood banks in France this week, raising concerns about the safety of critical medical supplies as similar cyberattacks disrupted supermarkets across Europe.
Officials said Wednesday that the cyberattack on France’s national blood service, the French Blood Establishment (EFS), occurred overnight between Sunday and Monday.
“Several regional facilities of the French Blood Establishment were affected by a cybersecurity incident that impacted certain cold storage room monitoring and control systems,” the French health ministry said in a statement.
Despite the attack, officials said blood supplies were unaffected after employees received alerts and quickly moved the products to refrigerators that were not connected to the compromised systems.
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“We have staff round the clock since blood can be needed at any time,” EFS spokesperson Charley Dubois told Reuters. “They were warned about the problems by alerts and moved the blood to other refrigerators that were not connected.”
The health ministry said the situation was under control by Wednesday, noting that remote access to the affected refrigeration systems had been disabled.
Officials are investigating how the attack was carried out, which equipment may have been affected and when the systems can safely return to service.
The incident coincided with cyberattacks targeting supermarket refrigeration systems in eight European countries, forcing retailers to discard large quantities of food.
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In Belgium and Luxembourg, approximately 40 Delhaize supermarkets were affected, while other incidents were reported in Sweden, Ireland, the Netherlands, Estonia and Finland, according to the BBC.
The attacks reportedly caused some refrigeration systems to enter defrost mode, raising temperatures and spoiling refrigerated products.
The latest incidents followed a major cyberattack on French supermarkets last month, when hackers manipulated refrigeration systems at hundreds of stores, forcing retailers to discard large amounts of perishable food.
Major chains including Carrefour, Monoprix, Les Mousquetaires, E. Leclerc and Coopérative U were affected by that incident.
Some stores reported refrigerator temperatures reaching 122 degrees Fahrenheit, resulting in significant food losses.
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In the U.S., the Army Criminal Investigation Division’s Cyber Field Office is also working with the Defense Commissary Agency and the Defense Criminal Investigative Service to determine what caused refrigeration failures at at least six military commissaries in August. Commissaries are grocery stores on military installations that serve military personnel and their families.
Former FBI special agent Nicole Parker previously warned in an interview with Fox News Digital that cyberattacks targeting grocery stores and other essential services could also take place in the United States.
Following the incidents in Europe, she cautioned that systems Americans rely on for food and other necessities could be vulnerable to similar attacks.
“What we’re seeing right now is in Europe and other places, but it can very well happen on our soil,” Parker said.
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Fox News Digital’s Stepheny Price, Brooke Curto and Robert McGreevy, along with Reuters, contributed to this report.
