French blood banks were on Monday affected by the recent wave of cybersecurity attacks on European refrigeration systems, the French Blood Establishment confirmed on Wednesday.
The organization said that while it wasn't the direct target of the attack, cold storage units operated by external providers containing the EFS' blood products were compromised across three of its sites, with hackers cranking up temperatures.
"Specifically, temperature and defrost thresholds were set to excessively high levels," the EFS said in a statement translated from French to English by CNBC.
"These cold storage units—located at EFS preparation and distribution sites—are used to store blood products prior to their delivery to healthcare facilities, as well as samples intended for EFS biobanks."
They also stored frozen plasma used for transfusions the manufacturing of medicinal products.