Cyber hackers target Covid vaccine ‘cold chain’ distribution firms in ‘global campaign with hallmarks of a nation state’, IBM says
- IBM said it uncovered a ‘global phishing campaign’ that started in September
- Comes after suspected North Korean hackers targeted British vaccine
- Not clear who carried out the latest attack but had ‘hallmarks’ of a nation state
Cyber hackers have targetted coronavirus vaccine ‘cold chain’ distribution firms in a global campaign that has the hallmarks of a nation state, according to IBM.
The US tech giant said it had uncovered a ‘global phishing campaign’ it believes started in September, targeting those associated with the ‘cold chain’ for storing and transporting vaccines at the right temperature.
It comes after suspected North Korean hackers targeted the British coronavirus vaccine producer AstraZeneca with multiple attempts to access staff computers last week.
It is not clear who carried out the latest attack but security researchers said it had the ‘hallmarks’ of being a nation state.
Pfizer has already created a staging ground at its Michigan facility (pictured above) complete with 350 large freezers to hold the vaccines, which need to be stored at -94F, once they’re created and ready to ship
The attempt spanned six countries linked to the Cold Chain Equipment Optimisation Platform (CCEOP) of Gavi, the international vaccine alliance which helps distribute jabs to some of the world’s poorest countries.
‘Given the specialisation and global distribution of organisations targeted in this campaign, it’s highly likely that the adversary is intimately aware of critical components and participants of the cold chain,’ IBM said.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, set to roll out in the UK from next week, was not a specific target of this incident.
Those affected and authorities have been notified about the operation.
Pfizer has already created a staging ground at its Michigan facility complete with 350 large freezers to hold the vaccines once they’re created and ready to ship
Last week it was reported hackers had tried to break into AstraZeneca’s systems as the company races to deploy its Covid-19 vaccine.
The hackers posed as recruiters on networking site LinkedIn and WhatsApp to approach AstraZeneca staff with fake job offers, two sources said.
They then sent documents purporting to be job descriptions that were laced with malicious code designed to gain access to a victim’s computer.
Mene Pangalos, AstraZeneca’s vice president for research
The hacking attempts targeted a ‘broad set of people’ including staff working on Covid-19 research, said one of the sources, but are not thought to have been successful.
The North Korean mission to the United Nations in Geneva did not respond to a request for comment.
Pyongyang has previously denied carrying out cyberattacks. It has no direct line of contact for foreign media.
AstraZeneca, which has emerged as one of the top three Covid-19 vaccine developers, manufacturing a vaccine developed by the University of Oxford, declined to comment.
The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss non-public information, said the tools and techniques used in the attacks showed they were part of an ongoing hacking campaign that US officials and cybersecurity researchers have attributed to North Korea.