French weekly Le Canard Enchaîné reported that Coolworld supplied refrigeration equipment involved in a cyber incident affecting three sites of France’s public blood service, where alarms helped staff protect plasma stocks.
The Établissement français du sang (EFS) said the incident occurred Nov. 2 and affected cold-room monitoring and control systems at three sites. Alarms flagged unusual settings, prompting staff to secure or move plasma used for transfusions and medicine production. The EFS said no blood products were lost or health effects reported, and that it maintained collection and distribution operations. EconoTimes previously covered the EFS’s account of the three-site incident.
The EFS has not named its refrigeration provider. Le Canard Enchaîné identified it as Coolworld, which said a limited number of its units were affected. The company said the reported vulnerability concerned a component from a third-party supplier outside its direct control.
Le Canard Enchaîné also reported that rooms normally set to −30°C had been programmed to reach 110°C. The EFS did not confirm numerical settings, and the report does not establish that the rooms or stored products reached 110°C.
A CERT-FR alert issued Oct. 12 described multiple compromises involving remote refrigeration controllers and warned against exposing their management interfaces to the internet. The EFS has not disclosed the equipment involved, so the alert does not establish a link to this incident. The service said it was working with France’s national cybersecurity agency and the Health Ministry.
