🔍 Read the full analysis: 110 °C: Inside The Hack On A Blood Bank's Plasma Freezers on ThorstenMeyerAI.com
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TL;DR
France’s national blood service said a cybersecurity incident affecting a refrigeration contractor’s remote systems altered controls at cold rooms at three sites overnight on Nov. 1–2. The EFS says alarms detected the changes, plasma was moved as a precaution, and no health impact or product loss was reported. A reported 110 °C was a controller setting, not a measured temperature.
France’s national blood service, the Établissement français du sang (EFS), said a cybersecurity incident involving a refrigeration contractor altered the controls for cold rooms at three sites overnight on Nov. 1–2, affecting rooms holding frozen plasma. EFS monitoring and alarms detected the abnormal settings, staff moved the products as a precaution, and the service reported no health impact and no loss of blood products.
In a statement issued Nov. 3 and quoted by franceinfo and Next on Nov. 4, EFS said the incident affected supervision and control installations for cold rooms at three of its sites. The service said temperature and defrost thresholds had been raised to “very high temperatures,” without giving a figure. The rooms held plasma for transfusion and plasma intended for fractionation, a process used to make medicines.
EFS said its monitoring and alarm systems identified the anomalies quickly. Equipment was brought under control or switched off, and the contents were transferred to other installations as a precaution. The service said technical teams were working with France’s national cybersecurity agency, ANSSI, and the health ministry, while temperature monitoring across EFS equipment was increased.
The figure 110 °C comes from Le Canard enchaîné’s account, as relayed by other outlets; it is not in the EFS statement. That reporting says rooms normally set around −30 °C were reprogrammed to +110 °C. The number describes a controller setpoint, not a recorded room temperature. No cited source reports that the plasma or rooms reached 110 °C.
Infographic 01 · 110 °C, explained
A setting, not a temperature
Someone raised the targets of plasma cold rooms at France’s blood service to +110 °C. The rooms never got there. What mattered was the alarm.
Frozen plasma has to stay at or below this line. The danger was thawing, not boiling. A few degrees too warm can already mean discarding bags.
- +110 °CThe programmed setpointTyped into the controller (Canard). Never reached, never measured.
- ~+50 °CHottest reported in the supermarket waveDefrost heaters forced on, same night (AFP, ZDFheute)
- −25 °CThe line that mattersFrozen plasma is stored at −25 °C or colder (EDQM guide via ISBT)
- −30 °CNormal operation of the EFS cold roomsAs reported by Le Canard enchaîné
Why the alarm won
- DetectionEFS monitoring and alarms flagged the anomaly quickly (EFS)
- A person on callAn on-call technician saw the temperature rise in the night (Canard)
- A plan BThe plasma was moved to other installations as a precaution (EFS)
Sources: EFS communiqué, 3 Nov 2026, via franceinfo · Le Canard enchaîné, as reported by Solutions Numériques · ISBT, citing the EDQM Guide · AFP via Al Jazeera, 4 Nov · ZDFheute, 3 Nov. The 110 °C and −30 °C figures come only from Le Canard enchaîné; the EFS gives no number.
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Why Plasma Temperature Control Matters
Frozen plasma must remain cold enough to preserve it for transfusion or later processing into medicines. European guidance summarized by the International Society of Blood Transfusion says fresh frozen plasma is stored at −25 °C or colder. A warming cold room can put stored products at risk, even when an extreme number entered into a controller is never reached.
The incident also shows the importance of safeguards beyond the refrigeration controls themselves. In this case, EFS says its monitoring and alarms detected the abnormal settings, and staff had a way to move stock. The reported outcome was no product loss, but the event exposed how remote access used for equipment supervision or maintenance can become a route to disruption.
EFS president Frédéric Pacoud told BFMTV on Nov. 4 that the service could have lost samples or plasma bags intended for patients, while saying product safety was not affected. That statement describes a potential consequence, not a loss that occurred. EFS has reported no health impact.
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How the Remote Controls Were Reached
EFS is France’s national blood service, collecting donations and supplying hospitals. Its statement describes the affected systems as installations for supervision and control at three sites and says a refrigeration equipment contractor was the victim of a cybersecurity incident. EFS did not name the contractor or say that it was directly targeted.
Le Canard enchaîné identified the contractor as Coolworld, a company that rents and maintains refrigerated rooms and containers. That identification is based on the newspaper’s reporting; Coolworld had not publicly commented in the source material. The EFS identified one affected region as Bourgogne-Franche-Comté; the other two sites were not publicly identified.
The incident occurred on the same night as a second wave of attacks affecting supermarket refrigeration in several European countries. The source material reports no official link between the supermarket incidents and the EFS case. Two groups describing themselves as pro-Russian later claimed the supermarket attacks in online videos, but that claim was unverified, the posts were deleted, and no government had attributed those attacks to a perpetrator.
“The EFS monitoring and alarm systems made it possible to identify these anomalies quickly.”
— Établissement français du sang, statement issued Nov. 3
What Investigators Have Not Disclosed
The EFS has not publicly named the contractor, identified two of the affected sites, or given a technical account of how the remote system was accessed. Its statement does not specify the exact settings entered, the duration of the incident, or the highest temperatures actually measured in the rooms. The 110 °C figure is attributed to Le Canard enchaîné, not confirmed in the EFS communiqué.
The source material says technical teams were working with ANSSI and the health ministry, but it provides no findings from that work. It also does not establish who was responsible or whether the incident was connected to the attacks on supermarket refrigeration that occurred the same night. Claims by groups about those supermarket attacks remain unverified and do not establish responsibility for the EFS incident.
EFS Review and Security Measures
EFS said its technical teams were working with ANSSI and the health ministry and that temperature monitoring across its equipment had been stepped up. The service has not announced a timetable for a public investigation report or detailed any permanent changes to contractor access and refrigeration controls.
Further information may clarify how the incident began, which sites were involved, and whether any measured temperatures approached the threshold at which plasma could be affected. For now, the confirmed operational account is that alarms detected the anomalies, products were transferred, and EFS reported no loss or health impact.
Key Questions
Did any plasma reach 110 °C?
No source reports that it did. The 110 °C figure was reported as a controller setpoint, not a measured temperature. The EFS statement itself described thresholds being raised to very high temperatures but gave no number.
Were blood products lost or patients harmed?
The EFS reported no health impact and no loss of blood products. It said monitoring detected the anomalies and that products were moved to other installations as a precaution.
Who was responsible for the incident?
That has not been established in the available reporting. EFS said a refrigeration contractor was the victim of a cybersecurity incident. Le Canard enchaîné named Coolworld, but EFS did not identify the contractor in its statement, and the source material reports no confirmed perpetrator.
Was the blood service incident linked to the supermarket attacks?
No link has been established. The incidents happened during the same night, but the source material says no authority had connected them. Claims by groups about the supermarket attacks were unverified and do not establish a connection to the EFS case.
Source: ThorstenMeyerAI.com
