NHS blood banks and vaccine reserves are at risk of being targeted by cyber criminals, an MP has warned after hackers hit medical centres in France.
Graeme Downie, the Chair of the Coalition on Secure Technology, has told hospitals to conduct a security sweep of their refrigeration systems as a priority.
Following an attack on three sites in France, which saw temperatures 'raised to extremely high levels', Mr Downie warned 'hostile actors' could target Britain next.
The Labour MP said: 'This attack on France's blood service proves that hostile actors can hack into refrigeration systems storing vital blood supplies.
'The Coalition on Secure Technology has warned that NHS fridges holding blood, vaccines and medicines are vulnerable to remote tampering through high-tech components connected to mobile networks.
'NHS trusts should audit their connected equipment now, and the government should set security standards for connected medical technology before the NHS suffers an attack like this or worse.'
His strongly worded warning comes just a day after the French Blood Establishment, or EFS, said: 'temperature and defrosting thresholds were raised to extremely high levels' at three of its cold-storage sites for plasma on Monday.
'No health consequences have been identified, and no blood products were lost,' the EFS said.
NHS blood banks were warned they could be targeted by hackers after attacks in France
MP Graeme Downie the head of the Coalition on Secure Technology said Britain could be next
Stocks were not harmed because an alarm system at the site sent out a warning.
The products stored were bags of plasma intended for transfusions and plasma used to manufacture medicines, and were either transferred or secured, the statement said.
'Monitoring and alarm systems quickly detected the anomalies, allowing staff to take action to ensure that no blood products or samples were compromised,' the EFS added.
Blood collection and distribution operations remain uninterrupted, ensuring continued services for patients at hospitals and other healthcare, according to the French government agency.
The blood bank hacks come as supermarket freezers in Sweden, Luxembourg and Belgium were also hacked.
Supermarkets were forced to throw away food which went off because of rising temperatures, in a series of attacks similar to those which took place in France last month.
Groups such as Ahold Delhaize and Colruyt in Belgium and Luxembourg, as well as Swedish grocers ICA and Coop were targeted.
Furniture-to-meatballs retailer IKEA also saw at least one store affected.
A notice informing customers that refrigerators are temporarily out of service is displayed on an empty case at the Delhaize Shop & Go in Belgium
Supermarkets in European countries have been targeted by unknown hackers in recent months
Approximately 40 Delhaize supermarkets in Belgium and Luxembourg were affected, while a smaller number of shops were hit in Sweden, Ireland, the Netherlands, Estonia and Finland.
'Everything is destroyed,' Engla Ingwall, a sales manager at an ICA franchise store in Stockholm, told Reuters during a visit to the store on Monday, adding the attack occurred at 2am but was only noticed hours later.
'There has been a cyberattack and all our freezers reached 50 degrees (Celsius),' she added.
A spokesman for ICA said the company was aware that a 'limited number of stores were affected by an incident overnight, which impacted their refrigeration and freezer systems'.
The latest incident followed an attack in France last month when police said hackers seized control of cooling units at hundreds of supermarkets, causing fires and food losses.
Ahold also reported a cyber-security incident to police last month.
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