Following EMA Cyberattack, Cybercriminals Leak Pfizer/BioNTech COVID Vaccine
The EMA (European Medicines Agency) oversees the evaluation and supervision of medicinal products in the E.U., like the US FDA. Last month, the agency disclosed that one of its servers had been breached by hackers and sensitive data relating to the COVID-19 vaccine being developed by Pfizer and BioNTech had been accessed. Specifically, documents relating to the regulatory submission for the companies’ COVID-19 vaccine candidate, BNT162b2, which was stored on the EMA server.
Earlier this week, the investigation of the cyberattack revealed that some of the unlawfully accessed documents related to the COVID-19 medicines and vaccines had been leaked on the internet.
The EMA has not disclosed detailed specifics of the cyberattack, including the timeframe, the initial point of compromise and what specific data on these regulatory submission documents was accessed. However, the networks of the EMA remain fully functional and the timelines related to the evaluation and approval of COVID-19 vaccines are not affected, the agency stressed. The BNT162b2 vaccine has been rolled out across the U.K. and is in the process of being approved and rolled out in other countries. Of note, Pfizer and BioNTech submitted vaccine approval requests to European drug regulatory bodies on Dec. 1.
The cyberattack comes during the mass rollout of various COVID-19 vaccines worldwide. Documents about these vaccines – and the development process behind them – can be used for malicious intent of various stripes, such as espionage or financial cyberattacks.
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