Etablissement français du sang cyberattack cold storage temperatures, Digi Mart USA News (Besançon, Doubs, France): Several refrigerated chambers of the Etablissement français du sang (EFS), including several in Besançon in the Doubs department, were the target of a cyberattack on Monday, November 2, 2026. The temperature of the refrigerated units suddenly rose above 100 degrees before the situation was brought under control.
According to a report by the satirical weekly Le Canard Enchaîné, the attack targeted Coolworld Rentals, a Dutch provider to the EFS, whose equipment, mostly refrigerated units holding blood and plasma from donations, was hacked for several minutes. Several EFS sites in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, Île-de-France, Hauts-de-France, Nouvelle-Aquitaine and Normandy were reportedly affected.
Christophe Barisien, the EFS regional director for collection and production, told France 3 Franche-Comté that the attack involved taking control of the cold rooms’ operating system to change temperature settings. He explained that the units are normally used for freezing at -25 degrees, but after the takeover they were set to much higher temperatures, around 110 to 150 degrees.
Barisien said the loss of control lasted only a few minutes. Continuous temperature monitoring systems in the cold rooms functioned and alerted on-call maintenance staff, whose rapid response meant no blood or blood samples were altered.
The EFS stated in a communiqué that no health impact had been identified and no blood product losses were to be reported. Plasma bags intended for transfusion and for fractionation into medicines were transferred or secured.
Barisien said the agency was surprised by the nature of the attack. He noted that EFS’s cybersecurity concerns had focused on its laboratory automation systems and medical-technical software used to track the transfusion chain, not on refrigeration equipment.
According to the Agence France-Presse (AFP), measures taken so far include cutting remote access to the affected equipment, increased monitoring of facilities and storage conditions, and transfer of products stored in the affected chambers to other facilities. The office of the health minister said technical investigations continue to determine the method and circumstances of the incident, the total number of potentially affected devices, and the timeline for restoring the facilities.
Possible legal action could be decided in a few weeks, when an updated assessment is expected.
The EFS said monitoring of the operation and temperatures of all its equipment has been reinforced and that the continuity of blood collection and distribution services is guaranteed.
The incident follows a wave of cyberattacks in recent weeks that affected refrigerated units at several large European supermarkets. In that case, refrigerators supplied by an outside partner reached temperatures up to 50 degrees.
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu referred the matter to the National Agency for the Security of Information Systems (ANSSI), which later identified a vulnerability in software supplied by a Danish company and contacted the publisher, according to a government source.
