Cyberattack on French Blood Establishment: Investigation Opened
The Paris public prosecutor's office has opened an investigation following a cyberattack targeting cold storage units at the EFS in early November. The authorities are investigating a possible link to the case of hacked connected devices attributed to Iran.
Judicial investigation launched after the EFS cyberattack
The Paris public prosecutor's office opened an investigation on Tuesday 10 November following the cyberattack that affected cold storage units of the French Blood Establishment, according to TF1 Info. The investigations, entrusted to the Anti-Cybercrime Office (Ofac) and the General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI), are targeting an "attack on a computerised data processing system".
The incident occurred during the night of 1 to 2 November at three regional sites of the EFS. Supervision devices for cold storage units containing blood samples and plasma bags suffered an alteration to their operating parameters — the temperature was reportedly programmed remotely to change from -30°C to +110°C, according to Le Canard Enchaîné.
The Paris public prosecutor's office is currently unable to confirm a link to the case of connected devices, in which Iran has been implicated and which it denies. The public prosecutor stated that "investigations are continuing" to clarify the origins of the attack.
The French Blood Establishment assured that no health impact has been identified and no loss of blood products is to be reported. The organisation specified that only a limited number of Coolworld units were affected by the incident that occurred on remote monitoring software supplied by a third-party provider.
The EFS indicated that it has implemented all necessary audit, security and control measures since the detection of the incident, in coordination with Anssi (the National Agency for Information Systems Security) and state authorities.
Source: TF1 Info