Russia Is Trying to Hack COVID-19 Vaccine Development

Russian state-based hackers have targeted Western COVID-19 vaccine development, the cybersecurity agencies of the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada say.

APT29, a hacker group that has been linked to the Kremlin and Russian-sanctioned hacking campaigns, undertook a campaign to steal information and intellectual property around the development and testing of vaccines for the novel coronavirus.

The campaign sought to “hinder response efforts at a time when healthcare experts and medical researchers need every available resource to help fight the pandemic” reads a joint statement from the three countries.

The hackers used malware known as “WellMess” and “WellMail” in order to gain access to researchers’ computers. Japan’s cyber security agency issued an alert in 2018, warning that WellMess was targeting Windows and Linux machines, after the malware was found on Japanese systems.

The malware gives hackers the ability to access the target system and upload and download files at will. The hacks have not been publicly connected to APT29 before today.