UK, U.S., Canada accuse Russia of hacking

Britain, the United States and Canada accused Russian hackers on Thursday of trying to steal information from researchers seeking a coronavirus vaccine, warning scientists and pharmaceutical companies to be alert for suspicious activity.

Intelligence agencies in the three nations alleged that the hacking group APT29, also known as Cozy Bear and said to be part of the Russian intelligence services, is attacking academic and pharmaceutical research institutions involved in COVID-19 vaccine development.

“It is completely unacceptable that the Russian Intelligence Services are targeting those working to combat the coronavirus pandemic,” British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said in a statement, accusing Moscow of pursuing “selfish interests with reckless behavior.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, rejected the British accusations, saying: “We may say one thing: Russia has nothing to do with those attempts,” Peskov said, according to the state news agency Tass.

The attacks are seen by intelligence officials as an effort to steal intellectual property. The campaign of “malicious activity” is ongoing and includes attacks “predominantly against government, diplomatic, think tank, health care and energy targets,” Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre said in a statement.

Britain said its assessment was shared by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency and the National Security Agency, and by the Canadian Communication Security Establishment. The move at a coordinated position seemed designed to add heft and gravity to the announcement — hopefully prompting the targets to take protective action. It was unclear whether any information was stolen.

The U.K. statement did not say whether Putin knew about the vaccine research hacking, but British officials believe such intelligence would be highly prized.

Relations between Russia and the U.K. have plummeted since former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a Soviet-made nerve agent in the England in 2018 and later recovered. Britain blamed Moscow for the attack, which triggered a round of retaliatory diplomatic expulsions between Russia and Western countries.

In a separate report Thursday, Britain accused “Russian actors” of trying to interfere in December’s U.K. national election by circulating leaked or stolen documents online.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is being accused by opponents of suppressing a report into Russian interference in British politics that was completed last year by the committee that oversees the U.K. intelligence services. The document was not cleared for publication before the general election in December, and the delay since then in appointing new members to the Intelligence and Security Committee led to allegations that Johnson’s government was deliberately stalling.