Blood donation centers seek immediate help from donors following a cyber attack.

A ransomware attack has significantly reduced the capacity of a blood donation service that partners with over 300 hospitals in the southeast, as stated in a news release.

OneBlood, a nonprofit blood center, is collaborating with cybersecurity experts and law enforcement agencies to address a "ransomware attack" affecting its software system.

Susan Forbes, OneBlood senior vice president of corporate communications and public relations, stated that our team reacted promptly to evaluate our systems and initiated an investigation to determine the complete extent of the event, emphasizing the importance we place on the security of our network.

"We are continuously working to restore full functionality to our systems as quickly as possible through our ongoing response efforts."

The nonprofit's blood centers are still operational, but with a significantly reduced capacity, as they continue to collect, test and distribute blood to hospitals.

To maintain operations, we have introduced manual processes and procedures, which, although effective, can be time-consuming and affect inventory availability, as stated by Forbes.

"We have requested that the more than 250 hospitals we serve activate their critical blood shortage protocols and remain in that status."

OneBlood is urgently seeking blood donations at its operational centers due to a ransomware attack. The nonprofit has called for donations of all blood types, but particularly needs O positive, O negative, and platelet donations.

OneBlood is receiving blood and platelets from blood centers across the country, and the AABB Disaster Task Force is coordinating national resources to assist with additional blood products being sent to OneBlood, as stated in the news release.

Forbes emphasized the importance of not taking the blood supply for granted, as the situation is ongoing. He urged eligible donors to make an appointment to donate as soon as possible.

According to its website, OneBlood supplies safe, accessible, and affordable blood to 355 hospitals in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia.

The nonprofit has more than 90 donor centers and its fleet of 250 Big Red Bus bloodmobiles are commonly seen at blood drives in the southeastern United States.

Since its inception in 2012 when three independent Florida blood centers merged, OneBlood has expanded to become the second-largest blood center in the US. The organization distributes over 1 million blood products to hospitals annually.

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