Network Infrastructure

A report Tuesday from South Korea's Yonhap News Agency on Tuesday alleged that the regime of Kim Jong Un had tried to tap into the servers of a local drugmaker to obtain data on the Pfizer vaccine. WHY IT MATTERS The charge from South Korea's National Intelligence Service, reportedly relayed to Seoul lawmakers in a closed-door session, wouldn't be the first time North Korea was accused of cyber meddling in the search for COVID-19 vaccine data. At the moment, intelligence officials appear uncertain as to the scope of the cyber incursion and how much data might have been accessed if any. While isolated and highly-secretive North Korea hasn't reported a single case of COVID-19, the hermit kingdom is nonetheless scheduled to receive 2 million doses of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine from the World Health Organization's COVAX program in the next few months, according to BBC. THE LARGER TREND This isn't the first time North Korea has been accused of hacking systems around the world to obtain vaccine data. This past November, Microsoft pointed the finger at "two actors originating from North Korea that we call Zinc and Cerium" that it alleged were "targeting seven prominent companies directly involved in researching vaccines and treatments for COVID-19." Many security observers believe that the cash-strapped nation, which is said to have armies of trained hackers, might be as interested in selling vaccine data on the black market as in developing therapeutic doses for its own people. Since the first COVID-19 vaccines were first rolled out, there has been intense global concern about how hackers and other bad actors, nation-state and otherwise, might attempt to intrude upon or disrupt the development process. This past December, IBM X-Force published a report that hackers were taking aim at the vaccines' "cold chain" supply lines, in what it described as a worldwide spear phishing effort that had "potential hallmarks of nation-state tradecraft." Phishing emails had been sent to vaccine and supply chain organizations in South Korea and other nations, the report said. And in January, the European Medicines Agency reported that some data related to the Pfizer vaccine, stolen during a cyber attack the previous month, had been posted online. ON THE RECORD "There were attempts to steal COVID vaccine and treatment technology during cyber attacks and Pfizer was hacked," said Ha Tae-keung, a member of South Korea's National Assembly, about this most recent incident, according to a Reuters report on Tuesday. Twitter: @MikeMiliardHITN Email the writer: mike.miliard@himssmedia.com Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS publication.

The telecommunications giant is seeking to expand its reach in healthcare whilst dealing with strikes and imminent redundancies.

Digital health leaders discuss practical ways to mitigate evolving problems in large-scale digital projects during a recent virtual HETT fireside chat.

The agreement with the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority aims to “enhance the quality of health services, create new job opportunities, and elevate [Saudi’s] national economy to become a data and AI-driven economy.”

The nonprofit healthcare alliance reported that more than 265 million Direct Secure Messages were sent and received in the fourth quarter alone.

The health system has achieved nearly 100% uptime, a big increase in concurrent sessions supported – and $1 million in savings from reduced support and operations costs.

It helped eliminate delays for mission-critical applications, improve clinician experience, optimize IT human resources, make disk expansion process 10X faster and reduce time spent managing storage by 75%.

The right to health, not just the access to healthcare, requires a holistic understanding of how we can provide a better quality of life and wellbeing for the individual and society, argues Bogi Eliasen, director of health at the Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies and a member of the HIMSS Future50 Community.

Chief security officer at Cybereason calls the breach akin to “acts of war” as EMA confirms that data stolen in December 2020 was released online.

For many of us, 2021 feels a lot like 2020 with lockdowns imposed and hospital pressures increasing. However, there is light at the end of the tunnel with several vaccines now being rolled out globally, says Dr Saif Abed, founding partner, AbedGraham.