LONDON (PA) – The European Union’s drug regulator said on Friday that COVID-19 vaccine documents stolen from its servers by hackers were not only leaked on the internet, but “manipulated”.
He said the European Medicines Agency that an ongoing investigation has shown that hackers obtained emails and documents from November related to the evaluation of experimental coronavirus vaccines. The agency, which regulates medicines and medicines in the EU, with 27 members, had a series of confidential COVID-19 data as part of its vaccine approval process.
“Part of the correspondence was manipulated by the perpetrators before publication in a way that could undermine confidence in vaccines,” the Dutch agency said.
“I saw that part of the correspondence was published not in its original integrity and form and, or with, comments or additions by the perpetrators.”
The agency did not explain exactly what information was changed – but cybersecurity experts say such practices are typical of misinformation campaigns launched by governments.
Italian cybersecurity firm Yarix said it found the leak of 33 megabytes on a well-known underground forum entitled “Amazing Fraud! Evil Pfffizer! False vaccines! “Apparently, it was first posted on December 30 and later appeared on other sites, including the dark web, the company said on its website.
Yarix said “The intent behind the leak by cybercriminals is certain: to cause significant damage to the reputation and credibility of EMA and Pfizer.”
Cybersecurity consultant Lukasz Olejnik said he believed the intention was much broader.
“I am afraid that this launch has a significant potential to sow distrust in the EMA process, vaccines and vaccination in Europe in general,” he said. “Although it is not clear who may be behind this operation, it is clear that someone has established the resources allocated to it.”
“This is an unprecedented operation aimed at validating pharmaceutical material, with potentially wide negative effects on the health of Europeans if it undermines confidence in the vaccine,” Olejnik added.
The EMA said law enforcement is taking “necessary action” in response to the hack and that a criminal investigation is underway.
He said that given the devastating effect of the pandemic, there was an “urgent need for public health to make vaccines available to EU citizens as soon as possible”. The EMA insisted that, despite this urgency, its decisions to recommend green lighting for vaccines were based on “the strength of scientific evidence on the safety, quality and efficacy of a vaccine and nothing else”.
The Amsterdam-based EMA was criticized by Germany and other EU member states in December for failing to approve vaccines against the virus more quickly. The agency issued its first recommendation for the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine a few weeks after the shot was approved in the UK, the United States, Canada and elsewhere.
The EMA has recommended a second vaccine, produced by Moderna, for use earlier this month. A third film made by AstraZeneca and Oxford is currently being examined by the agency.
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AP Technology writer Frank Bajak contributed from Boston.
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