Hackers Target Companies That Covid-19 Vaccine Security

According to IBM, hackers were posing as executives of a Chinese company that makes medication cooling systems

Hackers are targeting their efforts at companies that secure experimental vaccines against the new coronavirus. A warning was sent by the United States government on Thursday, shortly after researchers at the American company IBM said that attacks to steal user data (better known as phishing ) were going on.

According to the company, hackers were posing as executives of Chinese company Haier, a manufacturer of refrigeration systems for medicines. Vital systems for maintaining and transporting vaccines — Pfizer’s, for example, needs to be stored at -70ºC.

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The targets, according to IBM, included organizations related to website creation, software companies, security, and the solutions sector — all global, with offices in Germany, Italy, South Korea, Czech Republic, Europe, India, and Taiwan. Their focus was to reach the executives who participate in The Cold Chain Equipment Optimization Platform (CCEOP), an initiative created by UNICEF’s Gavi Alliance.

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It was not clear, however, whether the hackers’ attempt was successful — but IBM believes that, given the moment the world is living in and Haier’s established role, the likelihood that the targets clicked on emails without question their authenticity increases considerably. The attack, according to IBM, has been going on since September this year.

No vaccine manufacturer has been hacked to date, despite attempts attributed to countries like Russia, China, and North Korea.

Who will have priority to get the vaccine?

A group of experts in the United States, for example, released a list of recommendations in September that could shed light on how the vaccination campaign should take place.

According to the report by American specialists (still in draft form), in the first phase, high-risk health professionals, first responders, then people of all ages with previous health problems and conditions that put them at high risk and the elderly should be vaccinated. who live in crowded places.

In the second phase, vaccination should take place in essential workers at high risk of exposure to the disease, teachers and other education professionals, people with previous medium-risk diseases, older adults not included in the first phase, people on the streets who spend their nights in shelters, individuals in prisons and professionals working in the areas.

The third phase should focus on youth, children, and essential workers who were not included in the first two. It is only in the fourth and final phase that the entire population will be vaccinated.

In an interview with the MIT Technology Review, epidemiologist Marc Lipsitch, from Harvard, said that it makes more sense to vaccinate older people first to prevent more deaths, and then move on to other healthier groups or the general population.

A study carried out in September this year, for example, made a model of how covid-19 could spread in six countries — the United States, India, Spain, Zimbabwe, Brazil, and Belgium — concluded that, if the goal is to reduce rates of mortality, adults over 60 years old should be prioritized at the time of vaccination.

How effectively does a vaccine need to be?

According to research published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, a vaccine needs to be 80% effective to put an end to the pandemic. To prevent others from happening, prevention needs to be 70% effective.

A vaccine with a lower efficacy rate, from 60% to 80%, may even reduce the need for other measures to prevent transmission of the virus, such as social detachment. But it’s not that simple.

This is because the effectiveness of a vaccine is directly proportional to the number of people who get it, that is, if 75% of the population is vaccinated, protection needs to be 70% capable of preventing infection to prevent future pandemics and 80% effective in ending with the outbreak of a disease.