New Delhi: In the most recent attack by hackers on COVID-19 vaccines and drugs data, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) tells it has been hit by a cyber-attack and docs relating to a COVID-19 vaccine have been accessed.
BioNTech, which produces one of the vaccines in collaboration with Pfizer, announced that its regulatory submission was accessed during the attack.
As of late, Dr Reddy’s which is directing clinical trials for the Sputnik vaccine had been the target of a hacker attack.
The EMA is working towards the authorization of two COVID-19 vaccines, which it expects to conclude within weeks, BBC revealed.
The cyber-attack was not expected to affect that timeline, BioNTech stated.
The EMA did not give any more details on the nature of the cyber-attack in a brief statement on its site, besides saying a complete investigation had been initiated, the report stated.
BioNTech said in an explanation that it had been told its archives had been gotten to.
It stated: “Today, we were informed… that the agency has been subject to a cyber-attack and that some docs relating to the regulatory submission for Pfizer and BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine candidate, BNT162b2, which has been stored on an EMA server, had been unlawfully accessed.”
It included that the EMA has assured us that the cyber-attack will have no impact on the timeline for its review.
It said it had disclosed the details of the hack given the critical public health considerations and the significance of transparency.
And it furthermore said it was “unaware” of any personal information of participants in its medical studies being compromised.
The EMA authorizes the utilization of medicines over the European Union.
It is trying to decide if the Pfizer/BioNTech jab — which has recently started being rolled out in the UK — and another created by Moderna is safe for utilization in EU countries, BBC stated.
The utilization of cyber-attacks against bodies engaged with the vaccine rollout has been an element of recent months.
Security services warned in the summer Russian intelligence was aiming at organizations trying to develop an effective vaccine.
In the past few days, IBM said the cold storage chain used to supply vaccines had gone under cyber-attack – presumably by a nation-state.
The cyber-attack arrives the day before the agency is due to update the European Parliament on the progress of the vaccine assessments, BBC revealed.
