In October 2026, a wave of cyberattacks targeted refrigerators in hundreds of supermarkets in France, with other European countries subsequently being hit by hackers who raised temperatures by several dozen degrees overnight, resulting in significant quantities of food being discarded.
The Établissement Français du Sang (EFS) was also a victim of an attack. An employee’s vigilance helped avoid catastrophe, signaling a new type of target for hackers.
Thales Cyber Services, the cybersecurity consulting and services branch of the French Thales group, indicated that some of its clients in the healthcare sector appear to be in the crosshairs of hackers, with Christophe Bianco, VP of cybersecurity services, stating that certain clients have reported that their refrigerators used for vaccines or blood bags have been targeted.
These hackers are actively seeking vulnerabilities and security flaws in hospital equipment or healthcare facilities to gain control and potentially extend their attacks to entire networks, a situation that can be perplexing, especially given the recent wave of attacks on supermarkets that was enabled by outdated and poorly secured equipment.
Christophe Bianco noted that he believes this story will continue because many people have been victims of these attacks without having the means to detect them, and these threats must raise awareness among security officials that no connected object is safe if it is not properly secured.
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According to Christophe Bianco, connected objects are often a blind spot for security officials in managing risk and monitoring their perimeter, and they are not always subject to continuous surveillance. He adds that they are often considered the sole responsibility of the physical security manager.
The attack on supermarkets was detected because the hackers did not hide their actions, drastically and permanently increasing temperatures. If they had instead lowered the temperature during the night, many might not have detected the incident.
Moreover, refrigeration systems are not the only connected objects at risk, as Thales notes that automated oxygen distribution or even syringe pushers could be controlled remotely, leading to major security crises. The time has come for many entities to assess their situation and secure their systems.
Several French hospitals and their equipment will be verified by Thales in the near future, but the situation is still far from being fully secured, given the entities that are unaware of these threats and the costs associated with addressing them, which poses a significant challenge due to current economic conditions.
