Russia ‘tried to steal UK vaccine research’
Hackers accused of targeting Oxford and Imperial scientists working on Covid cure
RUSSIA has been accused by Downing Street of launching a “despicable” operation to steal Britain’s coronavirus vaccine secrets in a state-sponsored cyber attack.
Both the two British teams trying to develop a vaccine, at Oxford University and Imperial College London, are understood to have been targeted, with security sources refusing to say whether any of the attempts to steal information had been successful.
The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) said it had the “highest level of confidence” the Kremlin was behind the “ongoing” attack, which was also verified by the US and Canada.
The announcement came hours after Russia announced its intention to produce 200million doses of an “experimental” vaccine this year, fuelling suspicions that it could have been successful in stealing information from one of the laboratories across the world that were targeted.russia boasted that its vaccine could be “the first in the world” to be approved.
The NCSC said the hack was part of an ongoing campaign of “malicious activity” that began in around February or March when coronavirus became an international pandemic. Intelligence sources said knowledge of the attacks “is at the highest levels” in Russia, directly implicating Vladimir Putin.
Russia has been accused of previous state-sponsored cyber attacks, including on the UK energy grid on the day of the 2017 general election.
The No10 spokesman said: “The attacks which are taking place against scientists and others doing vital work to combat coronavirus are despicable. Working with our allies, we will call out those who seek to do us harm in cyber space and hold them to account.” The Russian embassy in London said
“any unfriendly actions against Russia will not be left without a proper and adequate response”.
The NCSC named the hackers as a group called APT-29 – better known by the nicknames “Cozy Bear” and “The Dukes” – which has previously been behind attacks on the Pentagon and the Democratic Party in the US. It said for the first time that the group was part of the Russian intelligence service.
Separately, Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary, said “Russian actors” had also tried to “interfere” with the 2019 general election by repeatedly promoting online a leaked document that was touted by Jeremy Corbyn at a press conference days before the poll.
Mr Corbyn last night said the claims were an attempt to divert attention “from the threat to the NHS and the Tory party links to Russian oligarchs expected to be revealed in the longburied parliamentary Russia report.”
The Daily Telegraph first linked the online “amplification” of the US-UK trade talks document to the Kremlin in December, and yesterday the former Labour leader was described by an international think tank as a “useful idiot” for Russia.
The global race to develop a coronavirus vaccine not only promises a coup for the country that gets there first, but could also prove highly lucrative, making it a race Russia would like to win.
On Wednesday researchers at Oxford said they had made a breakthrough in their attempt to develop a vaccine, which they suggested could be ready as early as October, seemingly putting Britain ahead of the rest of the world.
Then yesterday morning, Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, announced that the Russian vaccine would be approved in
August “making it possibly the first vaccine to be approved in the world”.
Within hours the NCSC released details of Russia’s attempts to breach the security of the UK vaccination programme. Mr Raab called the attacks “completely unacceptable” but has so far stopped short of summoning the Russian ambassador to the Foreign Office.
Security sources said they were “not aware” of any data being stolen from UK labs by the cybercriminals. They said the attacks were highly targeted on individuals, and there had been “not huge numbers” of hacking attempts.
News of the cyber attack was released in a joint statement by the UK, US and Canadian intelligence services.
They said APT-29 – short for advanced persistent threats – was waging a “campaign of malicious activity [which] is ongoing, predominantly against government, diplomatic, think tank, healthcare and energy targets to steal valuable intellectual property”.
As long ago as May, the NCSC – part of GCHQ – warned that international cybercriminals were targeting healthcare bodies around the world involved in the coronavirus response.
In yesterday’s report, the NCSC, America’s National Security Agency and Canada’s Communications Security Establishment said: “Throughout 2020, APT-29 has targeted various organisations involved in Covid-19 vaccine development in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom, highly likely with the intention of stealing information and intellectual property relating to the development and testing of Covid-19 vaccines.”
Paul Chichester, the NCSC director of operations, said protecting the health sector had now become the agency’s “top priority”. Whitehall sources said the investigation into Russian hacking involved cyber teams from GCHQ, MI5, MI6, and the NCSC.
Mr Raab said it was “almost certain” Russian “actors” were involved in promoting “stolen” Government documents relating to trade talks with the US. The documents were cited by Jeremy Corbyn, the then Labour leader, as proof the Conservatives were preparing to open up the NHS to US pharmaceutical companies.
Mr Raab said: “On the basis of extensive analysis, the Government has concluded that it is almost certain that Russian actors sought to interfere in the 2019 general election through the online amplification of illicitly acquired and leaked Government documents.”
Mr Raab’s statement came as the newly formed parliamentary intelligence and security committee announced it would release a longawaited report into Russian interference in UK politics.
Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, said: “We have no information on who could have hacked pharmaceutical companies and research centres in Britain.”