France's financial and healthcare systems faced coordinated cyberattacks in early November, with hackers stealing from a major bank and attempting to sabotage blood storage across the nation.
Headquartered in Brittany in western France, Crédit Mutuel Arkéa said on Wednesday that a cyberattack had enabled fraudulent transactions, but customers wouldn’t suffer financial loss.
The regional newspaper Le Télégramme reported that €118 million was stolen. Some money had been frozen while the bank assessed the total amount involved, Crédit Mutuel Arkéa said, but it didn’t confirm the figure.
ZachXBT, an independent investigator who specialises in tracking cryptocurrency transactions, first made the fraud public. The money taken was moved between several accounts at cryptocurrency exchanges.
Crédit Mutuel Arkéa said its teams detected the attack and the incident was now under control. The bank took "the decision to temporarily suspend certain transactions in order to secure operations and prevent any new fraudulent movements". The paused transactions were expected to restart soon, after final security checks and measures were completed.
The bank gave no details about the method used in the attack or the identity of any possible perpetrators.
Blood storage targeted
A separate cyberattack targeted the French Blood Establishment, or EFS. On Monday, settings for temperature and defrosting thresholds at three of its plasma cold-storage sites were pushed to exceptionally high levels.
Coolworld, a major refrigeration maintenance contractor for EFS, was breached by hackers. They altered the settings on cold storage units, which are normally kept at −30°C to safely preserve blood products, raising the temperature controls to 110°C.
A technician on duty spotted overnight readings showing an unusual rise in temperature, preventing damage. Technical teams used emergency procedures to act before the inventory suffered permanent harm.
The stored items included plasma bags for transfusions and plasma used in medicine production. They were moved or secured. The EFS said "no health consequences have been identified, and no blood products were lost". Services for patients at hospitals and other healthcare facilities continued, with blood collection and distribution unaffected.
France’s national cybersecurity agency and the Health Ministry are investigating the EFS incident.
Part of wider campaign
Amid a wider series of cyber intrusions against connected industrial cooling equipment, the EFS incident comes as supermarkets in roughly a dozen European nations said this week that remote attackers had taken control of their fridges and freezers. The fridges and freezers warmed, spoiling tons of food, with losses totalling millions of euros.
- Monday, 2 NovAttack detected
Temperature thresholds raised to dangerous levels at three EFS plasma storage sites.
- OvernightTechnician intervention
On-duty staff noticed temperature spike and prevented damage.
- Tuesday, 3 NovStatement released
EFS announced the cyberattack and confirmed no products were lost.
- Wednesday, 4 NovCrédit Mutuel Arkéa confirmed
Their cyberattack, and multiple major news outlets published details of both events.
Crédit Mutuel Arkéa
Banking
- Cyberattack allowed fraudulent transactions
- €118 million reportedly stolen (unconfirmed)
- Funds routed through cryptocurrency exchanges
- Attack method and perpetrators unknown
French Blood Establishment
Healthcare
- Freezers reprogrammed from −30°C to 110°C
- Technician detected temperature spike overnight
- No blood products lost
- Perpetrators unknown
Investigations by French authorities continue.
