OneBlood, Florida’s primary distributor of blood, is able to again move supplies to hospitals but is still recovering from a ransomware attack that shifted the nonprofit into manual operations.
On Sunday, the nonprofit reported that its daily operations are starting to come back online.
Although the cyberattack left OneBlood unable to use a digital system, it has been able to collect, process and distribute blood at a hindered capacity as it shifted to manual operations.
“The biggest obstacle in getting blood out the door was moving to manual labeling, although we were still able to get significant amounts out the door,” said Susan Forbes, OneBlood’s vice president of communications.
Labeling operations bore the brunt of the attack, leaving staff to manually register donated blood before moving onto hospital distribution.
OneBlood said the process caused hospitals to operate as if there were a shortage of blood, otherwise known as a “blood shortage protocol.”
“Now, we have moved back to an automated environment,” Forbes said.
It remained unclear whether donor data was compromised and an investigation is ongoing, Forbes said.
“It's a very fluid situation and things are changing by the minute. We were and continue to do everything possible to resume back to full capacity,” Forbes said.
OneBlood supplies blood to about 250 hospitals in the state as well as Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.
The blood center says its digital systems were compromised July 29.
While cybersecurity experts are working to better understand the attack, OneBlood is calling on donors to respond to the call to give blood and platelets, especially in the aftermath of Hurricane Debby.
“All of our donations are always needed under any circumstance. So we encourage people who are eligible to donate, please do so,” Forbes said “They're making a tremendous impact in the community in helping save people's lives.”
