Supermarket fridge cyber attacks spread across Europe and hit French blood banks

A cyber attack on refrigeration units at France's national blood service was detected before any blood or health was harmed, officials said. James Waterhouse, reporting from Paris for BBC One West, said three regional sites belonging to the French blood establishment were affected. A supervisor stopped the attack by taking remote control of the freezing and cooling units, he said.

Waterhouse said the hackers had reportedly changed a temperature gauge from minus 30C to 110C. No blood was affected and no health was harmed. BBC One West reported that experts were pointing to Russian hacking groups, but that there was no public clue about who was responsible.

The attack followed a wave of cyber attacks on internet-connected fridge controllers at supermarkets across Europe. BBC One West reported that hundreds of supermarkets in seven European countries had been hacked, and that millions of euros of supermarket food had spoiled in France shortly before. In a later round-up, BBC News said the latest attacks targeted around 40 supermarkets in Belgium and Luxembourg, with fridges also hacked in Sweden, Ireland, the Netherlands, Estonia and Finland.

Nick Beake, reporting for BBC News from a supermarket outside Brussels, said its boss estimated about 100,000 euros of produce, more than £80,000, had to be thrown away after fridge and freezer temperatures were raised to 50C in the early hours. BBC News reported that the attacks affected cold storage at several regional French blood banks, but the French Ministry of Health said no blood products were damaged.

BBC News reported that the attacks exploited known weaknesses in two makes of internet-connected fridge controller. One make came with default passwords published in its user guide, which many sites had not changed. It said security companies had linked the hacks to Russian or Iranian groups, and that Russian hacktivist claims had been deleted and should be treated with caution. Similar fridge hacks hit French retailers in mid-October and US military bases in early August, BBC News said.

Ciaran Martin, former chief executive of the UK's National Cyber Security Centre, told BBC News that industrial fridge systems were different from a hacked home fridge and that critical devices should be kept separate. Jake Moore, global cyber security adviser at ESET, said businesses should use VPNs and change default passwords.