Security News > 2021 > April > IBM: 44 Organizations Targeted in Attacks Aimed at COVID-19 Vaccine Cold Chain
More than 40 organizations have been targeted in a global campaign focused on the COVID-19 vaccine cold chain infrastructure, which handles the distribution of vaccines and their storage at the required temperatures.
A total of 44 organizations in 14 countries were targeted.
Operating in Europe, North America, South America, Africa, and Asia, the targeted entities are key organizations involved in the transportation, warehousing, storage, and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.
The attacks employed HTML files that referenced solar panel manufacturers and organizations in petrochemical production.
The attackers targeted at least eight unique organizations within the aviation, automotive, maritime, and transport services sectors, as well as companies in biomedical research, medical manufacturing, pharmaceuticals and hygiene services.
IBM's security researchers believe that the attackers were looking to infiltrate the COVID-19 vaccine cold chain for espionage purposes, including insight into national Advance Market Commitment negotiations, information on distribution timetables, collection or duplication of electronic documents, and technical requirements surrounding warehousing.