OneBlood says ransomware attack impacted online operations and blood collection

U.S. non-profit blood donation organisation OneBlood suffered a significant data security incident that caused severe blood shortage across hospitals in southeastern United States.

In an announcement, OneBlood, one of the largest blood donation organisations in the U.S. that caters to hospitals in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and North and South Carolina, said that it recently became a victim of a ransomware attack that affected its internal network.

OneBlood said it has launched an investigation, with assistance from external cyber security experts, to determine the scope of the incident. It has also notified relevant law enforcement authorities, including federal, state and local agencies as part of its comprehensive response to the situation.

In a statement shared with the media, Susan Forbes, OneBlood’s senior vice president of corporate communications and public relations, said, “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.”

While OneBlood remains operational and continues to collect, test and distribute blood, the data security incident has reduced its operational capacity significantly.

“We have implemented manual processes and procedures to remain operational. Manual processes take significantly longer to perform and impacts inventory availability. In an effort to further manage the blood supply we have asked the more than 250 hospitals we serve to activate their critical blood shortage protocols and to remain in that status for the time being,” Forbes added.

The national blood community and AABB Disaster Task Force is working with OneBlood to continue providing blood supply to hospitals, however, there is an urgent need for O Positive, O Negative and Platelet donations. Forbes has urged willing donors to come forward and make an appointment to donate blood.