Cyber attack threatens French blood banks

Blood bank sites in France are the latest to be hit by cyber attackers.

The attack, which affected three regional blood banks, sought to raise temperatures to extremely high levels but was thwarted before it could do any damage, authorities have said.

The incident comes after cyber attacks on Tuesday affected the UK meat processing industry and supermarkets in European countries reported their fridges and freezers warmed up after they were remotely taken over - resulting in spoiled food costing millions of dollars.

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The French health ministry said the situation was "under control" and is "being closely monitored".

"The safety of ⁠the blood supplies was preserved thanks ​to the facilities' monitoring and ​alarm systems, as well
as precautionary ​measures immediately implemented," the ministry's statement added.

The French Blood Establishment, or EFS, said in a statement "temperature and defrost thresholds were raised to very high levels", adding "no health consequences have been identified, and no blood products were lost".

EFS said Monday's attack was not against itself, but on one of its providers.

In a statement to Sky News, the EFS said: "At this stage, we are not in a position to comment on the origin of the cyber incident or identify those responsible."

The products stored were bags of plasma intended for transfusions and plasma used to manufacture medicines, and were either transferred or secured, the EFS said in a statement.

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It comes the day after the UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) warned AI is "helping to industrialise cyber attacks" and is "highly likely" to be used in attacks on Britain's critical national infrastructure by 2028.

The NCSC, part of GCHQ, also said that China represents the "most sophisticated and sustained cyber challenge facing the UK" - and is likely to use AI to achieve its geopolitical goals in the same timeframe.

On Monday, cyber attacks were reported on fridges and freezers in supermarkets in several European countries including Ireland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and Estonia - causing temperatures to increase and food to spoil.

Ireland's ‌third-largest supermarket chain, ​SuperValu, said its refrigeration systems ⁠in ⁠13 of ‌its 223 stores ‌had been affected, forcing the company to remove chilled ​and ​frozen products ⁠from ⁠sale, it said.

(c) Sky News 2026: Cyber attack threatens French blood banks