Cyber attack targeting new corona vaccine information August 17th at 4:00
As cyber attacks to steal development information over new coronavirus vaccines are being carried out one after another by overseas research institutes, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has taken measures against domestic pharmaceutical companies, saying that the risk is rising in Japan. I am calling.
A new coronavirus vaccine is being developed in each country, but information agencies such as the United States and the United Kingdom were involved in a cyber attack last month that Russian information agencies stole information on development from research institutions etc. Has issued a statement calling for caution.
Since cyber-attacks are carried out across national borders on a global scale, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has called on domestic pharmaceutical companies and research institutes to take measures, saying that the risks are rising in Japan.
They want to protect their accounts with complex passwords, keep their software up to date, and regularly scan all files for viruses.
According to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, so far there has been no report in Japan of any damage caused by a cyber attack related to the new coronavirus.
Status of domestic vaccine production
Regarding the domestic production of the new coronavirus vaccine, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has decided to subsidize more than 90 billion yen to the business of six pharmaceutical companies.
The subsidized companies are Takeda Pharmaceutical, Shionogi, AstraZeneca, Anges, KM Biologics and Daiichi Sankyo.
Some companies are headquartered overseas, but each is promoting its business with the aim of producing vaccines in Japan.
The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has so far agreed with two companies, AstraZeneca in the United Kingdom and Pfizer in the United States, to supply if it succeeds in development, but in order to secure sufficient quantity It says that it is necessary to improve the production system.
Preparing for cyber attacks Challenges for the entire medical field
Preparing for cyber attacks is a challenge not only for vaccine development, but for the medical field as a whole.
According to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, there have been multiple reports of cases in which domestic medical institutions seem to have been subjected to cyber attacks.
According to the National Police Agency, in 2017, a computer in a hospital was infected with a virus called “ransom demand type”, the data was encrypted and it became unusable, and money was requested to release it. ..
Regarding cyber security measures for medical institutions, national guidelines were established in 2005 and are being reviewed regularly.
The guidelines require that you have a security officer, set fingerprint authentication in addition to passwords, and properly manage devices connected to the Internet.