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Pfizer, a leading biopharmaceutical company, and its German parent, BioNTech, recently revealed that they were the target of a cyberattack in which their documents related to the development of the COVID-19 vaccine had been “illegally accessed”.
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How reported By Reuters, Pfizer and BioNTech have stated that no personal data of the trial participants has been compromised in the cyber attack. Both companies were informed about the cyber attack by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). EMA told the companies that it had suffered a breach and that the threat actors accessed the Pfizer vaccine documents. EMA also assured the companies that the cyber attack will have no impact on their review schedule.
“No BioNTech or Pfizer systems have been breached in connection with this incident and we do not know that study participants have been identified through the data accessed,” the companies said. The EMA will complete its review on December 29 and is currently investigating the issue with the help of law enforcement.
The news comes at a time when cyberattacks have increased significantly against health institutions and research centers that are working on the COVID-19 vaccine. IBM recently warned which has uncovered a global phishing campaign in which threat actors target companies associated with a COVID-19 vaccine cold chain supply process.
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“We assess that the purpose of this COVID-19 phishing campaign may have been to collect credentials, possibly to gain unauthorized access in the future to corporate networks and confidential information related to the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine,” reads the Blog.
