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Pharmaceutical companies make billions from the manufacture and sale of corona vaccines. It makes sense for criminals to go to great lengths to profit from it.
On Wednesday, the Amsterdam-based European Medicines Agency (EMA) raised the alarm: it announced that it had been the target of a cyberattack. The hackers obtained data from the Mainz company Biontech and the American company Pfizer, which together are considered pioneers in the corona vaccine. Britain alone, which was the first European country to start vaccinating this week, ordered 40 million doses of vaccines from Pfizer / Biontech.
Hackers usually come by email
The EMA did not provide more precise information on the cyberattack, neither on the extension of the attacked files nor on the assumptions about the attackers. However, after “illegal access” to the documents, no Biontech or Pfizer systems were attacked, he said.
Experience shows that hackers often obtain your login details through emails they send to executives. They used forged sender identities, such as manufacturers of refrigerators, dry ice and solar panels, which are used to transport the refrigerated vaccine to remote areas.
Drone defense for warehouses
With the start of the vaccine distribution, nervousness increases. Last week, Interpol warned of an increase in crime. Jürgen Stock, Interpol Secretary General (61): “As governments prepare to launch vaccines, criminal organizations plan to subvert or disrupt supply chains.”
The German Federal Office for Information Security also warns: “We consider the threat posed by German vaccine manufacturers to be high.” Manufacturers are an attractive target for cyberattacks, behind which state organizations and competing companies lurk as well as organized crime.
Yvonne Ziegler (54), professor of business administration with special emphasis on international air traffic management at the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences, advocates the highest safety precautions for storage. In the “German Health Portal” it is quoted: “Since vaccines will probably also have a high value on the black market, high security measures such as access controls, surveillance systems and even defense systems with drones for warehouses are equally important “.
The army secures the camp
The Kuehne + Nagel logistics center, based in Schindellegi SZ, has signed contracts to sell vaccines around the world. It is not easy, because the material must be stored at temperatures of minus 80 degrees. How is the valuable asset insured? Have there been any hacker attacks? The company does not want to comment on security issues. When asked, spokesperson Dominique Nadelhofer just tells BLICK: “Basically, we make sure that all of our customers’ products are transported safely.”
The federal government mobilized the army to distribute vaccination doses in Switzerland. It provides the warehouse infrastructure for this and has purchased its own ultra-low-rise freezers to store vaccination doses. There is also great secrecy at the top of the army. Spokesperson Stefan Hofer tells BLICK: “The systems are classified. For security reasons, we cannot communicate the number and location of the storage places so as not to jeopardize our protection measures. “
It is clear that the facilities are massively guarded. Hofer: “The security of these existing places is guaranteed by the professional organization of the armed forces, including technical installations.”
Huge efforts are being made to protect the redeeming vaccine. Because it would be devastating if the material got into the wrong hands.
