{"id":27478,"date":"2020-12-17T15:24:00","date_gmt":"2020-12-17T14:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/perseus.de\/increased-hacker-attacks-on-critical-infrastructures-and-vaccine-manufacturers\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T16:40:05","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T14:40:05","slug":"increased-hacker-attacks-on-critical-infrastructures-and-vaccine-manufacturers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/perseus.de\/en\/increased-hacker-attacks-on-critical-infrastructures-and-vaccine-manufacturers\/","title":{"rendered":"Increased hacker attacks on critical infrastructures \u2013 and vaccine manufacturers"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Increased hacker attacks on critical infrastructures \u2013 and vaccine manufacturers\n<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Cybersecurity | IT Protection | Attack Vectors<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Last month, a group of security researchers from New York announced that the eight most promising players in the race for the COVID-19 vaccine are particularly at risk of falling victim to targeted cyberattacks with devastating consequences. According to the researchers’ analysis, the vast majority of these companies had several security flaws. On the night of December 10, the time had come. <\/strong><\/p>

At a time when people around the world are eagerly waiting for a vaccine against the COVID-19 virus, such a hacker attack would be fatal. This is exactly what pharmaceutical companies are currently focusing on and promising lucrative loot for cybercriminals. The motive is industrial espionage or the extortion of very high ransom demands. The New York researchers cited improper or completely unsecured configurations of the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) as a possible gateway. <\/p>

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Attack on the European Medicines Agency<\/strong><\/h4>

On the night of December 10, 2020, such an attack occurred. Hackers have carried out a targeted attack on the European Medicines Agency (EMA).<\/a> The cybercriminals managed to steal documents related to the application for approval of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech. Fortunately, however, the damage should be limited. According to the companies, the attack has no impact on the review deadlines, production or delivery of the vaccine. How exactly the hackers proceeded is not known at the moment. But both companies assured that no patients \u2013 or other personal data \u2013 fell into the hands of the attackers. <\/p>

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Not only pharmaceutical companies interesting for hackers<\/strong><\/h4>

This incident apparently went smoothly \u2013 but one does not want to imagine the consequences if the hackers had stolen, manipulated or made inaccessible important and secret information. As early as 2019, BSI President Arne Sch\u00f6nbohm saw pharmaceutical industries increasingly in the focus of cybercriminals. In this context, he also named operators of national water and electricity utilities as particularly at risk. But why do these sectors in particular see themselves exposed to higher dangers? It’s simple. The effects of hacker attacks, which could lead to interruptions or disruptions in operations there, would have far-reaching consequences for the entire population. <\/p>

The Federal Office for Security and Information Technology (BSI), together with the Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance, has identified sectors that they classify as critical infrastructures, or KRITIS for short. These are systems that play an important role in the community and are essential for maintaining important social functions. These include transport and traffic, water, energy, food, health, but also information technology and telecommunications. According to Arne Sch\u00f6nbohm, these sectors must attach great importance to internal IT security due to their importance to the population as a whole. <\/p>

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How do critical infrastructure organizations protect themselves?<\/strong><\/h4>

Organizations and facilities that are part of critical infrastructure are given special protection. Since 2011, the National Strategy for the Protection of Critical Infrastructures<\/a> has summarised all measures taken by the federal government, the states and the stakeholders concerned. Furthermore, the BSI-KRITIS Regulation<\/a> specifies which information technology systems are important for the functionality of critical infrastructures and which organizational and technical precautions must be taken to secure them. In addition, the ordinance stipulates that all cyber incidents and hacker attacks must be reported to the BSI. <\/p>

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Hacker attacks on critical infrastructures worldwide<\/strong><\/h4>

The following examples show the extent of a hacker attack on a critical infrastructure:<\/p>