Since the quest for coronavirus vaccine has started earlier this year, former head of the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency shared on Sunday that adversaries have attempted to steal intellectual property related to the possible world-changing vaccine.
Former CISA Director, Chris Krebs, shared during an interview with 'Face the Nation' of CBS, that the big four which includes China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran have exhibited some suspicious movements or some espionage, spying and trying to steal the intellectual property related to the vaccine.
Krebs also added that they had been thinking through at CISA that it was not just the vaccine developers that they targeted but also the entire supply chain as they are really trying to locate critical weak spots, CNBC reported.
He also added that the concern is not just Moderna and some others that are developing the vaccine, as it involves all parts of their supply chains, which includes the distribution channels and public health institutions.
Krebs also mentioned that those are the folks that we have to continue to spread cybersecurity support to from the national security community and the private sector.
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Just last week, IBM released a report which discovered a worldwide phishing campaign aimed at the cold chain of COVID-19, which is part of the supply chain of vaccine maintaining low temperatures to preserve the vaccine during transit and storage, The Washington Source reported.
In response to the discovery, CISA urged organizations which are associated with the vaccine program of the US, Operation Warp seed to review the report of the IBM and look for any indicators that the vaccines have been compromised.
Former CISA head, Krebs was the one who was in charge of the efforts to protect the US election. Krebs was also fired by US President Donald Trump through a series of posts through Twitter just last month, due to claims that he gave a very inaccurate statement about the 2020 presidential election security.
Almost a month ago, BBC also reported that Russian and North Korean Hackers which are backed by the state have targetted organizations which are working with the vaccine.
According to the report, Tech giant Microsoft stated that North Korean groups "Zinc" and "Cerium", alongside Russian group "Fancy Bear" were implicated in the said cyber attacks.
Before that, there has also been a report by the National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) of the UK that the research is being targeted by a Russian hacker. The accusation was denied by Russia.
In a statement, Microsoft stated that it has detected that there were attempts to break into computer systems of at least seven pharmaceutical companies that are developing a COVID-19 vaccine. It stated that the Us, South Korea, France, Canada, and India were also targeted.
According to their report, Microsoft said that Russian hackers used brute force strategy in hacking where they used millions of different passwords in an account. Meanwhile, North Korea's tactic was mainly phishing as it pretended to be the World Health Organization in several emails and tricked people into giving their credentials.
Related article: North Korea, Russia Attempt To Hack COVID-19 Vaccine Information, Microsoft Says
