Is Cybercrime Pointing to the Cold Chain of Vaccines?

Although the motive is not clear, fears inevitably grow: there is a fear that cybercrime could put the cold chain of vaccines in check, a point of fragility in the logistics of distribution of vials with which the world is trying to free itself from the yoke. of the coronavirus. The alarm was launched today by IBM, according to which from September there would be phishing initiatives designed to steal information about vaccines and related distribution strategies.

IBM: vaccines are in the crosshairs

Among the victims there would be WHO, Unicef, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other names involved in this process: the emails would try to install malicious code and would try to steal information by posing as senior officials of the companies concerned. The goal, in short, is to enter the mechanisms of the cold chain, absolutely central, especially as regards the first vaccine in distribution (Pfizer-Biontech), where the very low temperature required represents the most difficult element of the entire distribution chain. .

A single phishing attack is easy to engineer, but running an orchestrated spear phishing campaign against high-profile targets, like this one, shows a high degree of sophistication. It appears to have been a large and complex attack, more extensive than traditional cybercrime campaigns that aim at rapid monetization.

The fact that this campaign has been running for many months is one of the aspects that I find most worrying. Organizations need to work to dramatically improve their ability to detect unusual and suspicious digital activity long before situations like today's occur. To do this, they must adopt state-of-the-art defense technologies, in particular artificial intelligence, throughout the entire digital infrastructure. Artificial intelligence is indispensable today, in light of the sophistication and speed of the attacks we are witnessing and affecting an ever-growing range of digital platforms and tools.

Max Heinemeyer, Director of Threat Hunting at Darktrace

According to IBM, the attacks are highly targeted, part of an extremely sophisticated attack. The reasons remain to be understood: the role of the vaccine is so delicate as to authorize any interpretation, but above all the IBM analysis clarifies when cybersecurity is central also on the health front. Now it will be necessary to secure the information relating to delivery strategies and storage locations, avoiding that computer intrusion may be the premise for much more serious weaknesses. The consequences of which could be very dangerous.

Source: BBC