A few Russian hackers have been accused by the Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre or the NCSC of stealing research related to Covid-19 vaccine and treatment from pharmaceuticals and academic institutions around the world.
On Thursday a Russian Hacking group called APT29 has come into light when a statement on the same came from not the just Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre but also from countries like United States of America and Canada. The cyber security centres believe that these hacker groups are stealing research information from around the world regarding the Covid-19 vaccine and also treatment.
We are living with a pandemic called Covid-19 from past 6 months and it does not seem to end anytime soon. During these unprecedented times the world is waiting for just one thing and that is the perfect cure for Covid-19 or the vaccine for it. Health Officials, medical students, scientists, research group n other health sector bodies have been working tirelessly day and night to develop a vaccine for the same and yet there is no result. In the midst of all this a Russian Hacker Group is trying steal the research information from around the world.
The Russian Hacker Group which is identified as APT29 is also known as Cozy Bear. These hackers groups said to be operating as a part of Russian Intelligence Services.
When scientists and the team are working hard, trying to steal their work is an act of condemnation. These despicable attacks are condemnable against those doing the vital work said, NCSC Director of Operations.
Researchers in Cyber Security cell have said that the hackers used the told with clients which are located in various parts of the country. This client list included clients from United States, China, japan and Africa. These hackers used various hacking tools in this country over the past few months.
Britain also accused a few Russian Actors of hacking as well. The Russian Actors were trying to intervene in the elections in 2019. They also tried to spread leaked documents online. Russia’s foreign ministry said those accusations were “foggy and contradictory”. Britain is expected to publish a long-delayed report into Russian influence in British politics next week.
Dominic Raab who is a British foreign Minister also complained against the Russian Intelligence Services as what they were doing was completely unacceptable and reckless. The researchers and scientists who have been doing the vital work deserve the respect and it is reckless for Russian Intelligence to use someone else’s hard work by unethically hacking into their servers. This is all for selfish interest and is definitely not acceptable.
“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” Dominic Raab said in his statement. He also mentioned that Britain islooking forward to work with allies to hold these hackers to account for their unethical and illegal work.
The National Cyber Security Centre also mentioned that the cyber-attacks by the hacker groups from Russia had certain tools and techniques they have been using which include both custom malware and spear-phishing.
“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.
After Britain, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Cyber Command also came into picture by releasing information on Thursday. In the technical information released by the United States Cyber Security there was a mention of three hacking tools. These hacking tools are said to be deployed by Russian Hackers and they have their code names as well. The code names of these hacking tools are SOREFANG, WELLMAIL and WELLMESS.
There were certain private sector cybersecurity researchers who found out about the WELLMESS malware a couple of months ago. These private sector cyber security companies did not know that this malware had a certain Russian link to it. They found out about the link yesterday when the National Cyber Security Centre mentioned it in the statement.
In May, both Britain and United States gave a statement that some hacker groups were targeting certain national and international organisationsthat are busy in researching and responding to the pandemic first hand. While the countries and their health bodies have been working day and night tirelessly to do the required research hacker groups linked with Intelligence agencies of countries come in to steal the work. These cyber-attacks were not connected with the state of Russia previously like they are now.
By Deepika Agarwal
