France's blood bank was targeted by a cyberattack that caused the blood donation cold storage system to malfunction, but fortunately, officials detected and corrected it in time.
Foreign news agencies reported on 4 Nov 2026 that the French National Blood Institute (EFS) revealed its medical blood donation cold storage was cyberattacked, causing the refrigerator temperature to rise. However, staff noticed and fixed the issue promptly, preventing any blood donation spoilage or harm to patients.
This incident occurred amid simultaneous cyberattacks on freezer systems in several European countries, leading to temperature spikes and spoilage of goods worth huge sums.
Cybersecurity experts noted that the attacks happened concurrently across multiple locations, typically targeting nighttime temperature adjustments to maximize damage, indicating careful planning, IP address reconnaissance, and coordinated action.
A cybersecurity firm using "Honeypot" systems to lure hackers found the perpetrators targeted only freezer units in Europe, with no attacks detected in other regions—even decoy systems in Ukraine remained untouched.
Russian hacker groups NoName057(16) and Z-Pentest Alliance claimed responsibility for hacking the control systems of Denmark's Danfoss cooling company, but experts doubt this claim, as the methods do not match those previously used by these groups.
French cybersecurity company Sekoia stated the attack behavior matches that of Russian hackers or the Russian government, accused of "hybrid warfare" in Europe, but also pointed to potential involvement of Iranian government hackers.
This is because Iran has a history of similar industrial control system attacks, such as targeting supermarkets in Israel in 2022 and freezer units at at least six U.S. military bases as recently as August.
Authorities in several countries are intensifying investigations and issuing warnings to supermarkets and agencies. So far, no official identification of the attackers exists, but officials have not ruled out possibilities including state-sponsored hackers, copycat groups, or even online pranksters.
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Source:bbc