VACCINE SUPPLY CHAIN UNDER THREAT

Government officials and health-care groups are growing increasingly concerned about nation states and criminal hackers targeting the supply chain for COVID-19 vaccines.

Concerns have been amplified as the U.S. prepares to roll out the first vaccines later this month, with groups involved in creating and shipping the vaccines a prime target for potential cyberattacks.

“We have noticed an uptick in attacks against all aspects of the vaccine supply-chain from research through to manufacturing and distribution,” Marc Rogers, the executive director of cybersecurity at software group Okta, told The Hill on Friday.

Rogers, who helps lead the COVID-19 CTI League that tracks and helps defend against cyberattacks aimed at health groups, noted that the League has seen “ramped up” cyberattacks aimed at medical institutions corresponding to increasingly positive news around vaccine development.

“My suspicion is that all parties in the cybercriminal underground from ordinary criminals to nation states recognize that the vaccines represent a golden opportunity and are responding as such,” Rogers said.

North Korea has been among such nations, with The Wall Street Journal reporting recently that North Korean hackers targeted at least six pharmaceutical groups in the U.S., the United Kingdom and South Korea involved in developing a vaccine, including Johnson & Johnson and Novavax.

“All CISOs [chief information security officers] in health care are seeing attempted penetrations by nation state actors, not just North Korea, every single minute of every single day,” Johnson & Johnson CISO Marene Allison said at the Aspen Institute’s virtual Cyber Summit earlier this week.