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Russia has made an attempt to steal data on Covid19 vaccine research by targeting organizations and pharmaceuticals institution in US, UK and Canada, Britain’s National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) cautioned.
The security service points the attack to group APT29, also known as ‘Cozy Bear’, which they said almost operated as part of Russian intelligence services.
In a statement released by Tass News Agency, Dmitry Peskov, a spokesperson of President Putin denied all responsibility; “We do not have information about who may have hacked into pharmaceutical companies and research centers in Great Britain. We can say one thing – Russia has nothing at all to do with these attempts,”
Despite his denial, the Director of Operations Paul Chichester said “We condemn these despicable attacks against those doing vital work to combat the corona virus pandemic,”
Gordon Corera, a security correspondent stated in his analysis that the claim should not be too surprising because “understanding vaccine research and other details about the pandemic has become a top target for intelligence agencies around the world and many others, including Western spies, are likely to be active in this space.”
According to BBC, earlier in 2020, John Demers, an assistant attorney general for US national security, warned that hackers working for foreign governments were trying to steal vaccine research.
He said that the nation to find a vaccine first will gain clout on the world stage with a “significant geopolitical success story”.
For that reason, hackers have been pursuing vaccine research in several countries.
The NCSC stipulated in a statement that the group’s attacks were ongoing and used a variety of tools and techniques, including spear-phishing and custom malware.
Although, the security service did not specify whether any of the attempts had been successful, it claimed vaccine research had not been hindered by the hackers.
