International pharmaceutical firms and related institutions are being targeted by hackers in a global phishing campaign that focuses on the supply chain for the COVID-19 vaccine. 

According to IBM, the phishing campaign began in September and has so far affected countries and regions in Europe and Asia. The targeted organizations are associated with the Cold Chain Equipment Optimization Platform of the international vaccine alliance, Gavi. 

Like incidents in the past, this latest phishing attempt involved sending emails with malware-infested HTML files where victims would be lured into entering their login credentials and information that would then be sent to the attackers.

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See also: How to recognize and avoid COVID-19 scams

There appear to be no clear motives on why the attackers are active in this campaign.  But according to IBM, vaccine logistics and transactions can impact the global economy, which is why they suspect the attackers to be a nation-state actor.

In the past, China and Russia were accused of hacking attempts targeting COVID-19 research. 

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