Hackers Target Covid-19 Vaccine Distribution ‘Cold Chain’: IBM

Hackers “assumed to be state agents” have been waging a phishing campaign against pharmaceutical firms and other institutions involved in the forthcoming distribution of a vaccine against the novel coronavirus, IBM announced on Thursday.
In a post on Security Intelligence releasing their findings, IBM Security X-Force researchers wrote that “precision targeting of executives and key global organizations hold the potential hallmarks of a nation-state tradecraft,” adding the unknown hackers likely sought to obtain “advanced insight into the purchase and movement of a vaccine that can impact life and the global economy.” The target, according to IBM, appears to be the “cold chain”—a term for the logistics network that allows vaccines and other drugs to be carried from point of manufacture to distribution in temperature-controlled shipping containers. What the attackers hoped to accomplish is unknown, with possible motives ranging from theft of