While Covid-19 has affected many different businesses both large and small, one thing it has not slowed down is targeted phishing attacks by hackers.
Since the pandemic began earlier this year, researchers have been under a constant barrage of phishing/malware attacks by various hackers for the past several months. As the Vaccine continues to get closer to completion, Hackers have now begun to target the vaccines cold chain and transportation network.
The vaccine needs to be stored at very specific temperatures. Moderna needs to be at -4 degrees Fahrenheit and -94 degrees for Pfizer (That’s a bit chilly!)These extreme temperatures require what is called a “cold chain” a series of transports that can safely house the drug at these extreme temperatures (Barrett, 2020)
According to a report “a new stream of phishing attacks has been focused on disrupting the complex vaccine supply chain in the U.K, Canada and the U.S” (Barrett, 2020). These hacks have mostly been phishing attempts by hackers posing as a large Chinese cold chain provider asking for routine quotations. These emails have links attached that ask for credentials that could later be used to infiltrate the various companies involved.
While these attacks seem to be very petty, most people are unsure of the actual plan behind these phishing attacks. Once someone could get access to the backend of these companies. They could do a variety of things such as disrupt and obtain information to ransom or delay movement. Or disrupt the servers of this company further and obtain personal credentials. This could put a severe break on the vaccine distribution.
Another challenge is that these cold-chain companies are not as prepared to defend themselves from cyberattacks as other pharmaceutical companies. An example is Americold, a US cold storage firm that received a ransomware attack that knocked out some of its operations.
What is ransomware? We might talk about it later in a future blog!
Phishing attempts like these can be stopped through focusing on hardening all vital endpoints, as well as overall security training. viLogics can provide as well as a variety of other services with their various layers of Fortress security.
If you have any questions about viLogics or what we do don’t hesitate to check out our website at www.vilogics.com or call us at (800)-473-1587. Don’t forget to check out our other platforms on social media!
Thank you
The viLogics team.
