Russia ‘hacks UK, US & Canada vaccine trials in a bid to be the first to develop the vaccine’

Russia accused of hacking UK, US and Canada’s COVID-19 vaccine trials


The UK, together with Canada and the US have called out Russia in a coordinated announcement accusing it of trying to steal information from researchers conducting COVID-19 vaccine trials in a bid to use it in being the first to produce the holy grail.
Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre made the announcement this Thursday afternoon alleging that a hacker group known as ATP29 – known to be part of the Russian Intelligence – was behind several attacks on the three nations’ academic and pharmaceutical research institutions seeking to develop coronavirus vaccine.

“It is completely unacceptable that the Russian Intelligence Services are targeting those working to combat the coronavirus pandemic. While others pursue their selfish interests with reckless behaviour, the UK and its allies are getting on with the hard work of finding a vaccine and protecting global health,” the British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said in a statement today.

But Russia has denied the allegations.

“We do not have information about who may have hacked into pharmaceutical companies and research centres in Great Britain. We can say one thing – Russia has nothing at all to do with these attempts,” said Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for President Putin, according to the Tass news agency.

Experts have however warned that it is understandable how and why stealing Covid-19 information has become a high priority for intelligence agencies around the world.

n a race to be the first to come up with a coronavirus vaccine and finding ways to respond to the pandemic, nations and competitive organisations need such intelligence to better inform themselves of what others are doing – thus, the cyber-espionage.
Many have alluded to the fact that Russia’s groundbreaking “world’s first successful vaccine” which did not have specifics as to what human trial phase it was, could have been part of the new developments from the intel Russia got.
Similar accusations have also been levelled to China and Iran.
Though not much is known as to whether this is to disrupt the work done by these nations’ centres, it is alleged that these are basic efforts to steal intellectual property.
s