America’s Blood Centers (ABC) member New York Blood Center Enterprises (NYBCe) provided an update on February 3rd regarding blood collection activities in the wake a January 26th cybersecurity incident that impacted all of their operating divisions:
- Blood Bank of Delmarva;
- Community Blood Center of Greater Kansas City;
- Connecticut Blood Center;
- Memorial Blood Centers;
- Nebraska Community Blood Bank;
- New Jersey Blood Services;
- New York Blood Center; [and]
- Rhode Island Blood Center.
As of February 3rd, NYBCe reported that all blood collection activities had resumed following a cybersecurity incident explaining, “at this time, all blood collection activities have resumed across our operating divisions. All donor center operations and community blood drives are currently moving forward as scheduled, and we are working to reschedule those that were cancelled. We are also making strides toward resuming normal distribution. We deeply appreciate your patience and support, and we will remain in touch with our partners as we continue to work through this incident. We would like to thank our greater blood and advanced therapy communities – who have stood shoulder to shoulder with us and provided thousands of units to support NYBCe over the past few days. By working together, we have been able to keep the utmost focus on the communities we serve. While our blood supply remains stable, sustained donor support is essential in the days and weeks ahead as we recover from this incident. We encourage all eligible donors to give as soon as possible and urge organizations and community groups to host blood drives to help safeguard patient care. We continue to express our deepest gratitude to our entire community for the unwavering support during this time.”
NYBCe previously announced that, “[o]n Sunday, January 26th, NYBCe and its operating divisions identified suspicious activity affecting our information technology systems. We immediately engaged third-party cybersecurity experts to investigate and confirmed that the suspicious activity is a result of a ransomware incident. We took immediate steps to help contain the threat and are working diligently with these experts to restore our systems as quickly and as safely as possible. Law enforcement has been notified.”
The Association for the Advancement of Blood & Biotherapies (AABB) Interorganizational Task Force on Domestic Disasters and Acts of Terrorism “activated” in the wake of the cybersecurity incident and issued a January 30th Task Force statement.
ABC thanks its member blood centers and the blood community for assisting to ensure patient demand was met. We will continue to provide support through the Task Force and will pass along updates as they are made available.