North Korea suspected of hacking information on AstraZeneca vaccine

North Korean hackers have been charged with a cyberattack on British company AstraZeneca, who is one of those leading the development of the coronavirus vaccine with the University of Oxford. The South Korean intelligence agency (NIS) said on Friday (November 27th) that there had been no damage.

According to information published by the international news agency Reuterspirates They pretended to be human resources staff who posted fake job offers on LinkedIn, or broadcast via WhatsApp, to connect with AstraZeneca staff. They sent documents that looked like a job posting but contained malicious code in a job description to allow access to the laboratory network.

Beginning of November Microsoft had warned that the Russian and North Korean hacks They had targeted seven “important” companies working on research and treatment of the Covid-19 vaccine, of which Astrazeneca / Oxford is one of the best known.

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Cyber ​​attack attempts targeted “large numbers of people” Among those who were part of the team of professionals working on the cure of the coronavirus. According to published information, these attacks were unsuccessful and did not have serious consequences.

The North Korean United Nations mission in Geneva did not comment on this episode. However, the government in Pyongyang previously denied participating in a cyberattack because has no contact with foreign media outside of North Korea.

Reuters sources assured, under the promise of anonymity, that the tools used by the attackers would prove a sustained campaign that the United States attributes to the Kim Jong-un regime.

Washington has previously accused North Korea of ​​various cyber attacks, including leaked emails from Sony Pictures in 2014, the theft of $ 81 million from the Central Bank of Bangladesh and the launch of the Wannacry virus in 2017.

CI / FF