(Newswire.net— July 17, 2020) — Russian hackers are trying to steal the vaccine for COVID-19, as well as the research on the treatment of that disease, from academic and pharmaceutical institutions in the world, the British National Center for Cyber Security (NCSC) announced.
In a coordinated statement by Britain, the United States, and Canada, the attacks are attributed to the APT29 group, also known as “Cozy Bear”, which they say almost certainly works for Russian intelligence.
“We condemn these despicable attacks against those doing vital work to combat the coronavirus pandemic,” said NCSC Director of Operations Paul Chichester, Reuters reports.
The British Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dominic Raab, stated that it was “completely unacceptable” that the work to combat the pandemic was the target of the Russian intelligence services.
“While others pursue their selfish interests with reckless behavior, the UK and its allies are getting on with the hard work of finding a vaccine and protecting global health,” Raab said. He added that Britain would cooperate with its allies so that the culprits would be held accountable.
The NCSC said the group’s attacks were persistent, and that hackers used a variety of tools and techniques, including targeted scams and phishing emails, as well as malware.
“APT29 is likely to continue to target organizations involved in COVID-19 vaccine research and development, as they seek to answer additional intelligence questions relating to the pandemic,” the NCSC statement said.
Britain and the United States warned in May that hacker networks were attacking national and international organizations fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, but such attacks have so far not been explicitly linked to the Russian state.
The so called Cozy Bear group, linked to Russian authorities, is suspected of hacking the Democratic Party ahead of the 2016 U.S. election.
Russian scientists say they are in the finishing stages of testing for a COVID-19 vaccine and that they can have it ready by the end of the summer.
Russia plans to produce 30 million doses of an experimental COVID-19 vaccine domestically, and 170 million abroad, the head of the country’s sovereign wealth fund told Reuters.