Detlef Schmuck: “The next pandemic will probably be triggered by a computer virus”.
Expert assesses recent attack on Biontech/Pfizer vaccine data as “harbinger of a new cybercrime wave”.
Hamburg, December 10, 2020 – “While the whole world is still reeling in the fever of a biological virus, there is a high probability that the next pandemic will be triggered by a computer virus,” says data security expert Detlef Schmuck, CEO of Hamburg-based data service provider TeamDrive GmbH. The latest cyber-attack on the European Medicines Agency (EMA), in which approval documents for the Biontech/Pfizer vaccine were apparently stolen, is “just the harbinger of a new cybercrime wave,” fears the TeamDrive boss. As a preventative measure, he recommends that businesses encrypt sensitive data end-to-end, with double encrypted data storage both in the cloud and on computers in the plant. Additionally, every business should insure itself against cyber risks.
Data is the most important business asset
“Data represents the most important operating asset for most companies in our digital world,” says Detlef Schmuck: “Companies are therefore well advised to make every effort to protect their data to the maximum.” Failed computers can be restarted, memory can be recovered and disconnected networks can be reconnected, “but once important operational information has fallen into someone else’s hands, the damage is irreparable,” Schmuck points out.
A loss of data is just as serious: “Without data, the entire IT system is useless and the company is ready for bankruptcy,” warns the data security expert, not entirely disinterestedly. His company TeamDrive offers a high-security data service that stores duplicates of all data on the computers in the network in the cloud and also automatically performs regular backups. In the process, the data is encrypted end-to-end throughout, so that even in the event of data theft, the stolen information cannot be decrypted and is thus worthless to the thief. Detlef Schmuck explains: “Cyber insurance is strongly advised to cover the costs if the worst comes to the worst. But it cannot undo what has happened. In addition, when getting cyber insurance, it is necessary to clarify how well data protection is set up in the company anyway. That is why cyber insurance and data protection complement each other perfectly. By the way, even without an IT pandemic, because even a mere hacker attack can lead to disaster for the individual company if you are unprepared for it.”
IT pandemic is the second biggest security risk to the global economy
The TeamDrive CEO points to a planning document classified “VS-Geheim” by the German Federal Intelligence Service back in 2015, which only became known as a result of the Snowden revelations. It states: cyber-attacks pose a threat to public security through possible information outflows from the state and economy, influencing, disrupting or damaging information. This poses a threat to Germany as a leading high-tech country and an important business location. With the cyber armaments of numerous countries, including China and Russia, as well as criminal and terrorist actors, the threats have significantly increased in professionalism and quantity. The inexorably growing “Internet of Things” has a reinforcing effect. Inconspicuous items of everyday use, such as remote-controlled light bulbs or Internet televisions, can suddenly be “taken over” by a cyber attacker and converted into digital weapons, and this from any corner of the globe.
