COVID-19 Vaccine Supply Chain Under Attack

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A recent cyber attack on a COVID-19 vaccine scheduling system in Italy has demonstrated the growing threat of such attacks on medical supply chains. 

A cyberattack brought down the Covid-19 vaccine-scheduling website for the Italian region of Lazio. Hackers attacked technology systems run by the government of Lazio, apparently as part of a supply-chain hacking campaign that also affected Italian companies.

Hacker interest in healthcare organizations and Covid-19 vaccine-related infrastructure has soared since early last year, according to wsj.com. Attackers have attempted to compromise dozens of companies involved in the transportation, warehousing and storage of vaccines, IBM security researchers said in blog posts published in December and this past April. The U.S. and other countries warned last year that Russian, Chinese and Iranian hackers were targeting companies developing vaccines.

Attacks related to the pandemic ranged from ransomware attacks on large healthcare systems to misinformation campaigns.