Reported by NPR World
A close up of the hands of a nurse from the French Blood Establishment checking the identification and traceability of blood samples beside a donor during a mobile blood donation session in Paimpol Cotes d Armor Brittany France on July 23, 2026. Helene Rigny/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
In a new security bulletin, the information sharing and analysis center devoted to the healthcare industry, Health ISAC, alerted members to a recent wave of cyberattacks targeting refrigeration controllers — including one incident that affected a major French blood bank.
"This alert is issued for situational awareness, highlighting how recent operational technology (OT) attacks against specific refrigeration brands directly intersect with emerging threats to the health sector," reads the bulletin seen by NPR. Operational technology refers to the machines that control physical processes in the real world, from cooling systems to water pumps.
More from the original report
Cyberattacks on grocery stores and food processing plants everywhere from Europe and Israel to U.S. military bases have drawn headlines in recent months, particularly as attacks have resulted in spoiled food, fires, broken machinery, and major business disruptions. Attackers are clearly aware of the vulnerability of these systems and are taking advantage.
However, until news broke that the French blood bank, known as the French Blood Establishment, had also been targeted, there was less public attention focused on the potential consequences of refrigeration controllers failing in other industries, particularly healthcare, where lifesaving implements like blood and vaccines often require finely tuned temperature-controlled environments to remain viable.
"This incident underscores a stark operational reality: cybersecurity in healthcare is fundamentally about patient safety," wrote Errol Weiss, the chief security officer at Health ISAC in an email to NPR. "When threat actors manipulate operational technology like cold-chain storage and refrigeration units holding donor blood, plasma, or critical therapies, they aren't merely stealing data or locking down administrative files, they are directly endangering the physical resources required to sustain human life."
On Thursday, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the FBI, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture published their own fact sheet about threats…