State-sponsored hackers are going after research firms to track and steal COVID-19 vaccine data. Universities and research institutes doing cutting-edge research are the new targets of such hackers.
Julian E Barnes, national security reporter for The New York Times, in her report said that Chinese intelligence hackers intent on stealing coronavirus vaccine data conducted digital reconnaissance on the University of North Carolina and other schools.
China is not the only country fishing for COVID-19 vaccine-related research and data, and the news report claims that Russia’s External Intelligence Service (SVR), one of the successor agencies to the Soviet Union′s KGB, has systematically targeted vaccine research networks in the United States, Canada and Britain.
Chinese hackers target University of North Carolina and other schools
In July, UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) said accused Russian state-sponsored hackers of targeting UK, US and Canadian organisations involved in developing making coronavirus vaccine.
The NCSC said that a group known as APT29, a part of Kremlin’s intelligence services framework, attacked British drug companies and research groups
Iran has also significantly increased its attempts to steal information about vaccine research.
Google’s Threat Analysis Group in its report said that digital scams and phishing campaigns linked to COVID-19 witnessed exponential jump since January.
The report also said it had successfully tracked two of the state-sponsored campaigns.
State-sponsored hackers exploiting pandemic
Government-backed hackers around the world are exploiting the pandemic and creating and distributing phishing emails and malware, the researchers said.
The British officials have maintained that no vaccine research had been compromised.
Like the US, Britain is also one of the leading countries in coronavirus research efforts to develop a vaccine.
BBC reports that the vaccine developed by the University of Oxford appears safe and triggers an immune response. The Covishield vaccine developed has arrived in Chennai for phase two clinical trials which is set to start from next week.
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