The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which is reviewing applications for the use of vaccines for COVID-19, has taken additional precautions due to attacks by hackers on drug developers, according to the Financial Times, citing sources.
The regulator usually accepts applications electronically over the network. However, in the case of vaccines, the agency resorted to the help of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI): the documents about the vaccines were delivered to the FDA by department employees on a USB drive.
The FDA noted that they are always trying to improve their strategy in the field of cybersecurity and use the services of specialists in order to solve “complex problems of protecting confidential information.”
Cybersecurity experts said that hackers are studying the process of developing a vaccine with the aim of stealing intellectual property or causing damage.
In May, British universities and research institutions developing coronavirus vaccines were hacked, The Guardian reported, citing the National Cyber Security Center (NCSC). According to cybersecurity experts, the attacks aim to steal research related to COVID-19, including the development of vaccines. Experts suspected that Russia, Iran and China were behind the hacking attempts. So far, none of them have been successful, NCSC assures. Russia called the accusations an attempt to tarnish the reputation of the Russian vaccine.
