“The hacking attempt targeted a large group of people, including staff working on Covid-19 research, but it is not expected to be successful,” said one of the sources, who were not identified, as quoted by Reuters, November 27, 2020.
When questioned, North Korea’s representative to the United Nations in Geneva did not respond to Reuters requests for comment. However, Pyongyang has previously denied carrying out cyberattacks, and there are no direct lines of contact for foreign media.
AstraZeneca, which has emerged as one of the top three Covid-19 vaccine developers, also declined to comment.
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss non-public information, said the tools and techniques used in the attacks indicated they were part of an ongoing hacking campaign that American officials and cybersecurity researchers are associated with North Korea.
According to the three people investigating the attacks, previous campaigns have focused on defense companies and media organizations, but turned to Covid-19-related targets in recent weeks.
Cyber attacks on health agencies, vaccine scientists and drugmakers have surged during the Covid-19 pandemic as state-backed and criminal groups of hackers scramble to get the latest research and information on the outbreak.
Officials say any stolen information can be sold for a profit, and used to blackmail victims, or give foreign governments a valuable strategic advantage as they struggle to contain the disease that has killed 1.4 million people worldwide.
Microsoft said this month it had seen two groups of North Korean hackers targeting vaccine developers in multiple countries, including by sending messages with fake job descriptions. However, Microsoft did not specify which organizations were targeted.
In fact, South Korean lawmakers said on Friday, November 27, 2020, that the country’s intelligence services had thwarted some of these attempts.
Reuters has previously reported that hackers from Iran, China and Russia are trying to break into top drug makers and even the World Health Organization this year. However, Tehran, Beijing and Moscow have all denied the allegations.
Some of the accounts used in the AstraZeneca attack were registered to Russian email addresses, said one source, in an attempt to mislead investigators.
North Korea have been blamed by American prosecutors for some of the world’s most daring and destructive cyber attacks, including the hack and leak of an email from Sony Pictures in 2014, a 2016 theft of US $ 81 million from the Central Bank of Bangladesh, and the release of the Wannacry virus ransomware in 2017 However, Pyongyang has described the accusations as part of Washington’s efforts to tarnish its image.
REUTERS
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