For those who believe hackers have a moral compass, think again. A cyberattack recently targeted and brought down the Covid-19-vaccine-scheduling website for the Italian region of Lazio (which includes Rome), potentially exposing sensitive healthcare data, proprietary information about vaccine technology, and giving vaccine skeptics further reason to remain unvaccinated. According to the Wall Street Journal, the attack appeared to be part of a supply-chain hacking campaign targeting a variety of companies in Italy. A supply-chain attack is a technique in which a hacker injects malicious code into software or hardware supplied to and used by the target company, providing an unprotected (or less protected) gateway to the target company’s network. In recent months, cyberattacks have targeted myriad healthcare institutions in the United States and across the globe, including a sweeping ransomware attack on Ireland’s public healthcare system that forced a massive systemwide technology shutdown. The clear take-aways: No organization is off limits, and every organization should assume they will be the victim of a sophisticated cyberattack at some point.
Nixon Peabody’s Cybersecurity & Privacy Team will continue to monitor developments.