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The European Medicines Agency, the European Union’s drug regulator, has said that coronavirus vaccine documents hackers stole from its servers have been both leaked and manipulated.
The regulator, which regulates medicines and drugs across the European Union, said that an ongoing probe exposed that hackers received emails and documents from November connected to the evaluation of experimental coronavirus vaccines. The agency had substantial confidential COVID-19 data as part of its vaccine approval process.
“Some of the correspondence has been manipulated by the perpetrators prior to publication in a way which could undermine trust in vaccines,” the agency said.
“We have seen that some of the correspondence has been published not in its integrity and original form and, or with, comments or additions by the perpetrators.”
The agency did not clarify precisely what information was changed — but cybersecurity specialists say such practices are distinctive of disinformation campaigns launched by governments.
Cybersecurity consultant Lukasz Olejnik said he believed the intention was far broader.
“I fear this release has a significant potential of sowing distrust in the EMA process, the vaccines, and vaccination in Europe in general,” he said. “While it is unclear as to who may be behind this operation, it is evident that someone determined allocated resources to it.”
“This is an unprecedented operation targeting the validation of pharmaceutical material, with potentially broad negative effects on the health of Europeans if it leads to undermining trust in the vaccine,” Olejnik added.
