It has been reported that U.S. drugmaker Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech said yesterday that documents related to development of their COVID-19 vaccine had been “unlawfully accessed” in a cyberattack on Europe’s medicines regulator. The European Medicines Agency (EMA), which assesses medicines and vaccines for the European Union, said hours earlier it had been targeted in a cyberattack.Â
Cyber attacks on the global COVID-19 vaccine distribution network from nation-states China, Russia and North Korea are diabolical in nature and acts of war. The leaders of these countries should immediately denounce this behaviour and put an end to it because they are also harming their own citizens. These governments have an ability to stop this behaviour and bring those responsible to a courtroom to face a jury of peers. I can guarantee if found guilty these hackers will spend a long time in jail.
The average person might be asking themselves why nation-state actors seem to have no conscience and are deliberately sowing doubt and confusion around the world at the worst possible time? To nation-state sponsored cyber espionage actors, they have a stone-cold approach to cybercrime and there is tremendous value in interfering with the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. In the hackers’ mind, interrupting the global COVID-19 is just a means to an end, so long as they are padding their pockets with money.
A COVID-19 vaccine is a strategically valuable asset to nation-states; whoever gets a vaccine distributed first has an economic advantage. It is the ultimate IP with immediate value. It is like having an oil rush, a data advantage or territorial gain in older real political terms. Word to the wise, denying anyone access to the vaccine will be remembered and you will end up losing this fight.\”