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Cyber threats undermine vaccine efforts

by msecadm4921

Since a vaccine to COVID-19 was announced late last year, there have been several cyber-attacks against both its recipients and its distributors, undermining health care efforts.

Last month, it was widely reported that many cyber security threats were emerging in the form of Fake NHS Text Messages, but the dangers posed by online criminals and the methods they use continue to change. A variety of online scams are creating a unique hurdle for countries around the world in their vaccine efforts. Indeed, some cyber security experts say attackers are targeting people looking for information, with fake ads, emails, and notifications increasing public risk to APP scams, transaction fraud, as well as other threats.

Moreover, the risk of cyber-attacks doesn’t stop at fake vaccine information. Indeed, scams involving fake or illegally acquired vaccines are being investigated by some cyber security companies such as Check Point Software. And, outside of scams aimed at vaccine recipients, distributors have been targeted in recent weeks as well. Pfizer-BioNtech are one victim of this, after they had their vaccine data stolen and subsequently leaked online in a data breach at the end of January.

 

Are vaccine efforts facing teething issues against cyber security threats?

When the Coronavirus Pandemic began last March, cyber criminals began targeting more scams towards topics linked to the virus and, now there’s a vaccine, these attacks are moving towards this instead. Year on year, cyber security issues change and develop as we mentioned when looking at Business Security in 2021, so it’s no surprise that it’s something vaccine distributors will have to deal with. However, so far anyway, these early issues have been taken seriously and thus haven’t majorly disrupted vaccine efforts.

 

Moving forward

The COVID-19 vaccine is a goldmine for cybercriminals, as it provides a topic of interest on a global scale that can therefore be exploited. But, so long as recipients remain aware of how to Protect Personal Online Security, and distributors react effectively to new cyber threats, it could be a manageable risk moving forward.

 

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