Photo: MANDEL NGAN / AFP / Getty Images
(Florida) - US officials warning about another cyberattack. This time hackers hit non-profit donation service, OneBlood, which provides blood to hundreds of hospitals in the southeastern US.
The potential ransomware attack is causing an “outage” of OneBlood’s software system and is impacting its ability to ship “blood products” to hospitals in Florida, according to an advisory. As a result, OneBlood is manually labeling blood products to remain operational.
“OneBlood takes the security of our network extremely seriously. Our team reacted quickly to assess our systems and began an investigation to confirm the full nature and scope of the event. Our comprehensive response efforts are ongoing, and we are working diligently to restore full functionality to our systems as expeditiously as possible,” said Susan Forbes, OneBlood senior vice president of corporate communications and public relations.
More than 250 hospitals served by OneBlood have activated their critical blood shortage protocols.
“The blood supply cannot be taken for granted. The situation we are dealing with is ongoing. If you are eligible to donate, we urge you to please make an appointment to donate as soon as possible,” said Forbes.