Cyber pioneer asks: Is the coronavirus the result of a cyberattack?
"Those who know how to hack into financial bodies can also hack pharmaceutical companies and create a virus."
By MAAYAN JAFFE-HOFFMANJerusalem Venture Partners (JVP) founder and executive chairman Dr. Erel Margalit at Muni Expo 2020(photo credit: GADI SIERRA)
The founder and chairman of Jerusalem Venture Partners warned 350 mayors and city leaders that a cyberattack could bring the next coronavirus.“The outbreak of the [coronavirus] and the way the world is dealing with it, is like a script for the onset of global cyberattacks,” Erel Margalit said at Wednesday’s Local Government Innovation Conference at Muni Expo 2020. “We have witnessed cyber breaches at drug companies in the past, such as the Dragonfly virus in 2013, but so far what we have witnessed is theft.“Those who breach the finance departments of pharma companies can also break into their labs,” he continued. “These criminals are able to alter the composition of medicines and do even worse. We have no proof that the current virus is the result of a cyberattack, although we know that it could be.”Margalit said that the criminals and cyberterrorists who are planning the next attack, and the companies who are working to defend against them, are studying the effects of the virus 24/7.“They see how it is crossing borders, creating global panic which has a real impact on the international economy,” he said. “This is a promo of what a high-quality, pinpointed cyberattack can do to the world.”Margalit, who has been among the pioneers in investment in Israeli and global cyber technology, said that any city that views itself as a global hub must have an international cyber center.Two weeks ago, Margalit launched JVP’s International New York Cyber Center, in partnership with the New York City Council, Columbia University, Cornell University, New York University and CUNY.“The cities which develop solutions to these problems will become the cities that lead tomorrow’s world,” he concluded.
