All CNA Programs: North Korea implicated of Pfizer Covid vaccine cyber attack

Wednesday, February 17, 2021

North Korea implicated of Pfizer Covid vaccine cyber attack

South Korean intelligence pins a recent attack on Pfizer, targeting info on coronavirus vaccines, on its neighbour

Alex Scroxton

Alex Scroxton,
Security Editor

Released: 16 Feb 2021 15: 24

An apparent cyber attack on pharmaceutical company Pfizer was probably an effort to take Covid-19 vaccine details by North Korean state-backed actors, according to South Korea’s intelligence service, which briefed legislators throughout a closed-door session, says news firm Yonhap

National Assembly opposition member Ha Tae-keung exposed that Pfizer was amongst a variety of organisations hacked recently, in remarks evaluated by Reuters

” There were efforts to take Covid vaccine and treatment technology throughout cyber attacks and Pfizer was hacked,” he said.

Ha offered no additional sign of when the cyber attacks occurred, or whether or not they were eventually effective.

North Korea has actually reported no cases of Covid-19, although its borders remain closed in a nationwide quarantine effort and, provided the nature of the North Korean regime, it is extremely unlikely that Covid-19 is not present there.

The nation is set to get two million doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford University vaccine later this year, by means of the Covax programme

If South Korea’s intelligence is accurate, the attack on Pfizer is the latest in a string of cyber attacks by North Korea versus organisations associated with the research and advancement of Covid-19 vaccines.

The attacks, which date back several months, appear to include making use of spoofed logon pages for numerous online portals, which deceive staffers at the target organisations into handing over their passwords.

Other nation state-backed stars have actually also targeted components of the Covid-19 vaccine cold chain— part of the supply chain that deals with the preservation of vaccines. The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, for example, need to be kept at -70 ° C to stay viable.

George Daglas, primary running officer at security services company Obrela, commented: “The Covid-19 vaccine is presently among the most desired possessions on the planet, so it is not unexpected it is thought about a cyber attack target.

” Pharmaceutical business should take the required steps to protect not only their intellectual property however, more significantly, the vaccine production security and their vaccine supply chain by implementing rigorous cyber and physical security controls in every action of the production-supply lifecycle.

” It is also important for pharmaceutical business to cultivate a security-aware culture among their personnel, to efficiently lower the enemies’ probability of success when targeting staff as an entry point in the organisation.”

F-Secure chief research officer Mikko Hypponen stated: “Nation state hacking is absolutely nothing brand-new, and is something North Korea has a history of In the previous few years alone, North Korea has actually been held responsible for a number of cyber attacks triggering disruption and monetary losses on an extraordinary scale.

” We have to remember that North Korea is not a typical country. No other nation in recent history has turned to printing fake United States dollars. No other nation releases ransomware to blackmail bitcoins from their victims. No other country hacks international banking networks in order to take cash. Because line of thinking, it would not be surprising for them to attempt to hack vaccine information either.”

It is not known whether the attack identified by the South Koreans is associated with the December 2020 cyber attack on the European Medicines Company in which files relating to the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine were taken, and later on leaked

Pfizer has not yet issued any talk about the occurrence.

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