France’s national blood service kept plasma collections and distribution running after a cyber incident altered refrigeration controls at three storage sites, with no blood products lost, it said.
The Établissement français du sang (EFS) said the incident occurred Monday, Nov. 2. The affected sites stored plasma for transfusions and medicine manufacturing. EFS monitoring alarms detected anomalies in the refrigeration systems.
The service said affected stock was secured or transferred elsewhere as a precaution. France’s National Cybersecurity Agency (ANSSI) and Health Ministry are involved in the response. The EFS said it had not identified where the incident originated or who was responsible.
French weekly Le Canard Enchaîné reported that the supplier was Coolworld and that refrigeration settings normally at −30°C were programmed to reach 110°C. The EFS described extreme temperature and defrost thresholds but gave no numerical setting or actual temperature reading.
Reuters separately reported refrigeration disruptions at supermarkets in eight European countries on Nov. 2. No connection to the plasma-storage incident has been established.
