Russian hackers target vaccine work: UK
LONDON/BERLIN: The UK’S National Cyber Security Centre on Thursday announced along with its counterparts in the United States and Canada that hackers based in Russia have been targeting research teams and organisations involved in developing a vaccine for the coronavirus.
The coordinated charge by the three countries identifies a group called APT29 (also known as “the Dukes” or “Cozy Bear”) and concludes that the cyber group is “almost certainly part of the Russian intelligence services”.
The UK centre released a report, adding that similar conclusion has also been reached by Canada’s Communications Security Establishment and the US National Security Agency.
Two vaccine trials are underway at the University of Oxford and Imperial College London.
UK foreign secretary Dominic Raab said, “It is completely unacceptable that the Russian Intelligence Services are targeting those working to combat the coronavirus pandemic.”
Germany, meanwhile, plans to allow for tougher lockdown measures to contain local outbreaks and ward off the threat of a second wave, according to a draft agreement between the federal and regional governments.
Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro again praised the drug HCQ to fight Covid-19, while revealing he again tested positive, a week after saying he was infected.
The United States posted a new daily record of 67,632 new coronavirus cases in the previous 24 hours on Wednesday, according to Johns Hopkins University.florida, the new epicentre of tghe pandemic in the US, reported a record 156 deaths on Thursday and nearly 14,000 new infections. Total cases in the state has now crossed 315,000.