Cybercrime: Hackers attack French blood donation service
Cyber attacks are crippling refrigerators across Europe. In France, cooling systems for blood supplies have now also been tampered with.
Quick Look
- As part of Europe-wide cyber attacks on cooling systems, unknown hackers also targeted the French blood donation service EFS and manipulated refrigerators for blood supplies.
- There were also incidents in supermarkets and a butcher shop in Bavaria.
AI-generated summary
Why It Matters
Hackers exploit the online controllability of outdated operating technology in cooling systems to massively change settings.
Hackers are not only targeting the cooling systems in supermarkets, the French blood donation service EFS is also affected by the cyber attacks: several refrigerators in which blood supplies are stored were reprogrammed from minus 30 degrees to 110 degrees by unknown hackers, the broadcaster BFM reported. A technician quickly discovered this and there was no damage. The blood donation service confirmed the cyber attack on three locations.
"The safety of the products was not compromised," said the head of the blood donation service, Frédéric Pacoud, to the broadcaster BFM. If the cyber attack had not been discovered so quickly, blood supplies intended for patients could have been lost. Similar to the cyber attacks on supermarket refrigeration systems in several European countries, the hackers took advantage of the fact that the operating technology can be controlled online.
There have been problems with the refrigeration of food in supermarkets in Germany, Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Sweden in recent days. Three weeks ago there was a massive cyber attack on outdated cooling systems from a Danish manufacturer in French supermarkets. Large amounts of food had to be thrown away everywhere.
On Monday night, manipulation of freezing and cooling systems became known in numerous European countries and raised widespread concerns about the vulnerability of networked systems.
A butcher's shop in Bavaria also fell victim to such an attack. The unknown perpetrators apparently wanted to turn several cold stores into a real oven: According to police, the temperature settings of several cold stores were "changed to up to 150 degrees" on Monday night. The incident was “possibly related to further cyber attacks on cooling and freezing systems in Europe,” said the Upper Palatinate police headquarters in Regensburg.
According to experts, industrial infrastructure is particularly vulnerable to such attacks because it connects IT systems to often outdated equipment. By breaking into these systems, hackers can hijack the machines and cause disruptions in the real world. Information about the perpetrators and their motives has not yet been revealed.
Open Questions
- Who is behind the cyber attacks?
- What motive do the perpetrators pursue?
