Blood banks hit by cyberattack in France days after European freezer hacks

November 4, 2026 / 1:39 PM EST / CBS/AP

A cyberattack on several blood banks tried to raise temperatures to extremely high levels but was thwarted before it could do any damage to blood products or samples, French authorities said.

The incident comes after supermarkets in a number of European countries reported that their fridges and freezers warmed up after they were remotely taken over, resulting in tons of spoiled food at a total cost of millions of dollars.

The attacks have renewed wider concerns about the vulnerability of critical infrastructure and the growing risks of internet-connected consumer "smart" technology.

In the most recent cyberattack, the French Blood Establishment, or EFS, said in a statement released late Tuesday "temperature and defrosting thresholds were raised to extremely high levels" on Monday at three of its cold-storage sites for plasma. Monitoring systems quickly detected the problem, allowing staff to take action in time so that "no blood products or samples were compromised," it said.

French weekly newspaper Le Canard Enchaîné, which first reported the cyberattack, said that the attack had attempted to reset temperatures that normally are at minus 22 Fahrenheit (minus 30 Celsius) to as high as 230 F (110 C).

Original source: https://www.cbsnews.com/world/