RUSSIANS TRYING TO STEAL VACCINE SECRETS
Putin spies accused of cyber attacks on UK labs in bid to rip-off vital research
BRITISH labs working on a coronavirus vaccine have been targeted by Russian hackers, security chiefs have revealed.
Vladimir Putin’s spies want to steal secrets so Moscow can produce a jab.
A GCHQ chief said: “We condemn these despicable attacks.”
BRITAIN is fighting off an alleged campaign by Moscow to steal information in a bid to develop a coronavirus vaccine.
Russian state-backed spy group APT29 has launched cyber attacks on UK labs, according to British spooks.
The National Cyber Security Centre has accused the Kremlin of trying to rip off findings so Russia can produce a vaccine at the same time or sooner.
NCSC operations director Paul Chichester said: “We condemn these despicable attacks against those doing vital work to combat the pandemic.
“Working with our allies, the NCSC is committed to protecting our most critical assets and our top priority at this time is to protect the health sector.”
The NCSC – which is part of the GCHQ eavesdropping station – would not identify who has been targeted, but it is thought to include Oxford University and Imperial College London.
They both have high-profile vaccine development programmes.
Other centres from across the world are also believed to have been targeted.
APT29 “almost certainly operates as part of Russian intelligence services”, the NCSC added. The centre has issued
an advisory warning so that organisations have a better chance of protecting their networks.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said: “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.
“The UK will continue to counter those conducting such cyber attacks, and work with our allies to hold perpetrators to account.” APT29, also known as Cozy Bear, and The Dukes, has been operating for a number of years but this is the first time the NCSC has publicly linked it to Russian intelligence.
The group was previously implicated in attacks on the Democratic Party during the 2016 US presidential election which Republican Donald Trump won.
APT29’s activities are said to be known at the “highest level” of the Russian state – indicating President Vladimir Putin has sanctioned the attacks. Scientists at Imperial College
London and Oxford University have begun human trials of a vaccine.
A jab is seen as crucial to lifting lockdown. Nations such as Britain have pumped tens of millions of pounds into research but Russia is allegedly hoping to steal the science.
UK intelligence does not suggest the hackers are trying to hamper the development of a vaccine – instead they want to copy it. Experts think Russia has tried to exploit VPN connections staff use to link them in a network.
These APT29 attacks are thought to have begun in late winter. It is said to be using harmful software known as WellMess and WellMail.
In the announcement, made alongside counterparts from the US and Canada, the NCSC said yesterday: “APT29’s malicious activity is ongoing, predominantly against government,
diplomatic, think-tank, healthcare and energy targets to steal valuable intellectual property.”
Shadow Foreign Secretary Lisa Nandy said: “The reported actions of Russian intelligence services should be condemned. Labour is committed to working with the Government to protect national security and safeguard institutions from foreign interference, none more so than those leading the international effort to develop a Covid-19 vaccine.”
She urged Mr Raab to provide MPs with “concrete steps that will be taken to protect the UK” from cyber attacks. The Government has confirmed that a vaccine created in
Britain would be there to protect people here and across the world.
Former Attorney General Dominic Grieve, who chaired Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee until December, said Russia has been trying to hack systems and “spread disinformation” for a long time. He called the country a “serial offender”.
Russian news agency Tass cited a Kremlin spokesman as saying Russia had nothing to do with the attacks.
Matthew Schmidt, of the University of New Haven, in Connecticut, US, said the cyber attack revelations show Putin has “failed his country”.
The associate professor of national security added: “That Russia hacked vaccine research is a statement of the weakness of Russian science under 20 years of Putin’s rule. Russia was once a world leader in science.”
It is not acceptable to target those fighting the pandemic
DOMINIC RAAB HITTING BACK OVER CYBER THREAT