eResearchTechnology, a Philadelphia-based medical software company, has been hit by a ransomware attack. The company supplies pharma companies with tools for conducting clinical trials, including trials for COVID-19 vaccines. The attack has slowed down those trials over the past two weeks, as researchers were forced to switch to pen and paper for tracking patient data. The attackers could be financially motivated or a nation-state looking to gain competitive advantage, researchers speculated. ERT is now in recovery mode and the threat is contained, so the company is slowly bringing systems back into operation.
Source: https://threatpost.com/covid-19-clinical-trials-ransomware/159877/