Several regional facilities of the French Blood Establishment (EFS) were affected on November 2 by a cybersecurity incident that hit cold storage room monitoring and control systems, according to the French Health Ministry.

The situation is now under control and the safety of blood supplies was preserved thanks to monitoring and alarm systems — no health impact has been identified and no blood products have been lost, the EFS said, with collection and hospital deliveries continuing normally. Hackers accessed control units for fridges containing blood samples and programmed them to raise temperatures to 110°C, according to local media. The incident followed attacks that forced stores in eight European countries to throw away vast quantities of food after hackers tampered with their fridges on Monday.