Recently, a significant cyberattack targeted commercial refrigeration systems across Europe, impacting major supermarkets in nearly ten countries, including Sweden, Belgium, and Italy. This unprecedented assault has also reached regional blood banks in France, raising alarm over vulnerabilities in supply chains and public safety.
On Wednesday, the French blood agency, known as the Établissement Français du Sang (EFS), confirmed that three of its sites experienced a cyber incident affecting their cooling systems. The contractor-operated monitoring and control systems were compromised on the evening of November 2. Hackers significantly increased the temperature and defrost threshold settings of the cold storage units, risking the integrity of blood supplies.
According to reports from Reuters, the blood banks are staffed with personnel around the clock. Following the triggering of alarms, EFS workers promptly transferred blood plasma bags and materials used for drug manufacturing to unconnected backup refrigerators. Fortunately, this quick response ensured that the blood supply remained uninterrupted, and both blood samples and products were preserved.
The EFS operates as France’s public blood transfusion agency, tasked with collecting, testing, preparing, and distributing blood products—such as blood, plasma, and platelets—to over 1,900 hospitals nationwide. Annually, it provides support to more than a million patients.
French media outlets have reported that Coolworld, the supplier of refrigeration equipment for EFS, acknowledged awareness of the incident in a statement to POLITICO. Coolworld clarified that the issues arose from “components provided by a third-party vendor and not directly controlled by Coolworld,” indicating that only a limited number of their devices were affected.
In addition to the public health infrastructure under threat, this wave of attacks targeting cold chain logistics has swept through European retail, causing extensive disruptions.
On the same day as the EFS incident, the Delhaize supermarkets in Belgium and Luxembourg reported malfunctions in their refrigerated and frozen systems. This was soon followed by similar reports from Estonia, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Sweden, concerning refrigeration issues. By Tuesday, the attacks had escalated to affect supermarkets in Italy, Germany, Romania, and the United Kingdom.
Hackers manipulated the defrost settings, culminating in temperatures in supermarket refrigerators and freezers soaring to alarming levels of up to 50°C (122°F). This resulted in substantial spoilage, forcing retailers to discard vast amounts of perishable food, incurring losses amounting to millions of euros.
Just three weeks prior, approximately 700 supermarkets in France had their cooling equipment compromised, leading to fires and significant food waste. Additionally, a regional branch of Crédit Mutuel, a major French banking group, confirmed it fell victim to a cyber attack the following Wednesday.
The phenomenon of abnormal failures targeting temperature-controlled equipment may not be confined to Europe. The Pentagon in the United States is currently investigating mysterious refrigeration failures at at least six military commissaries that occurred in early August, suspecting a connection to similar hacking techniques.
Experts point out that an increasing number of devices, including commercial refrigeration systems, rely heavily on remote monitoring and control. If their connected software fails to address vulnerabilities promptly, it creates opportunities for hackers to exploit these weaknesses.
According to reports from The Guardian, the Italian government convened an emergency meeting with intelligence officials on Tuesday. Thomas Regnier, a spokesperson for the European Union, stated that EU agencies are urgently discussing coordinated responses with national authorities. France’s National Cybersecurity Agency (ANSSI) and the Health Ministry have raised equipment monitoring levels in light of these events.
As of now, no group has claimed responsibility for the attacks, and the motives remain unclear. Western intelligence officials and experts from cybersecurity firm Sophos suggest that since the onset of the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022, the security landscape has been increasingly tense. Such actions could potentially represent a “show of state-level capabilities and threat signals,” but they might also involve lone-wolf hackers.
Anne Le Hénanff, France’s Minister of Digital Affairs, stated in the Senate that attacks on refrigeration infrastructure “directly targeted our economy and supply chains,” speculating that their underlying aim could be to disrupt national unity and instigate public anxiety.