BioNTech Denies Report That Ransomware Breached Its Systems

Naomi Kresge (Bloomberg) -- BioNTech SE, which is developing a Covid-19 vaccine with Pfizer Inc., said its computer systems were unaffected by ransomware after a reported cyberattack in September.

Business Insider reported earlier, without saying where it got the information, that parts of BioNTech’s servers were encrypted with Ryuk ransomware as a result of the attack by unknown hackers. No key documents were compromised and no important data were lost, Business Insider reported.

Business Insider later issued a correction, saying that “in retrospect, some of the research was shown to be untenable. We cannot confirm that the Mainz-based company BioNTech was the victim of a cyberattack.”

A BioNTech spokeswoman said no IT systems or servers were affected by any kind of ransomware. She declined to comment on other details of the report.

The German company and its U.S. partner said earlier this week that their vaccine candidate protected more than 90% of symptomatic Covid infections in preliminary findings from a large trial.