French blood banks are hit by hackers who tried to heat plasma stores in Europe's latest fridge cyber attack
A LOT Polish Airlines Boeing 737 like the aircraft carrying 181 passengers, including Jewish schoolchildren from a London school, that was diverted from its Heathrow-to-Warsaw route after a hoax bomb threat.A locator map of European flight routes, showing the countries affected by Tuesday's bomb threats, including the Ryanair jet from Manchester that landed under guard in Murcia, Spain.
Hackers broke into control systems at a supplier running three plasma cold-storage sites for the French Blood Establishment (EFS), attempting to push temperatures from -30°C to 110°C overnight on Monday. Alarms detected the spike in time, and no plasma bags destined for transfusion or pharmaceutical production were lost or compromised. ANSSI, France's national cybersecurity agency, and the Health Ministry have each launched investigations, with refrigeration provider Coolworld identified as the attackers' entry point.
The incident echoes a wider pattern: last month hackers went after fridges in up to 700 French supermarkets, and this week comparable attacks hit retailers across nearly a dozen European countries.
Following the supermarket incidents, France's cybersecurity chief had explicitly cautioned that the same refrigeration technology is used in pharmacies and healthcare facilities — a warning that went unheeded.
A regional branch of Crédit Mutuel bank separately disclosed a cyber attack on Wednesday, deepening concern over a coordinated campaign against French infrastructure.
