Russian Cyber Spies Trying to Steal Coronavirus Vaccine Research

By Kayla Deruiter on October 8, 2020

Executive Summary:

The coronavirus pandemic happened early 2020 and has affected the world since. Every country is scrambling to find a vaccine and to be the first country to produce a vaccine will gain a successful geopolitical story. According to security officials, Russian intelligence hackers, known as Advanced Persistent Threat/s (APT29), also could be called Cozy Bear, are targeting research labs to obtain information from the United States, Britain, and Canada (Ellen Nakashima, W. 2020, July 16). APT29 is known for targeting governments, health care organizations, and more for intelligence gain, therefore it is encouraged for people working in these high-risk organizations to take precautions to mitigate these threats. Russia is not the only country trying to hack into other countries’ organizations to gain information, but also China and Iran have been targeting pharmaceutical and research companies pertaining to the coronavirus. Russia has denied all allegations, but there have been some attacks from the Russian hacker group using malware to try and gain access.

Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) Details:

Russia has been known to hack the different U.S. agencies for political or intelligence gain. The group APT29 is the same hacking group involved with the Democratic Party’s cyber attack back during the 2016 presidential election. British Foreign Secretary states “It is completely unacceptable that the Russian intelligence services are targeting those working to combat the coronavirus pandemic” (Ellen Nakashima, W. 2020, July 16), in reference to the current attempts by Russian intelligence services to steal any information on the pandemic and a vaccine. The Canadian biopharmaceutical company was hacked into back in mid-April during the initial covid-19 research, and they are almost sure it was the Russian cyber group APT29.

China is another country known for frequent hacks into other governments for intelligence, and the FBI and Department of Homeland Security informed that China is also targeting for the covid-19 vaccine. Attorney General William P. Barr says that Beijing is desperate to claim any medical breakthroughs (Ellen Nakashima, W. 2020, July 16). These countries are threats to all other governments who are trying to focus on the virus, but also have to focus on mitigating cyber attacks.

This controversy came from the desperate need of a vaccine for the hardest hit country, which was Brazil, at two million cases and over 76,000 deaths (Sarkar, S. 2020, July 17). The U.S. has the most deaths than any other country, therefore it is critical that a solution is found to control the virus and slow the case rates down. South Asia is right behind the U.S. in cases, with India on course for one million cases (Sarkar, S. 2020, July 17). All these countries are in distress, working effortlessly to find a vaccine and suitable cure for the virus.

Russia is in the process of developing their own 26 vaccines, with two undergoing trials. “We will produce 30 million doses of the vaccine in Russia, or 50 million if necessary, which means that Russia may complete vaccinations early next year”, said by Dimitriev (Ellen Nakashima, W. 2020, July 16). Western analysts assume that Russia is developing their vaccines based on stolen information. Regardless, every country wants to be the first to make this medical breakthrough that will affect the world and give them praise and credibility, but instead of focusing on the pandemic, they are focused on protecting information from another country discovering it first.

Potential Impact:

The United States has the second highest numbers in cases, following Latin America (Sarkar, S. 2020, July 17), and it has not been going down since. The U.S. has had to reimplement the covid-19 restrictions, which is affecting our nations economics. I assume that all the impacted organizations have already emplaced strong security measures, so I do not think that is what is prolonging the vaccine discovery. Although, I believe that the government is very focused on not having any information leakage therefore, individuals in the healthcare organization, research organizations, etc. should watch out for phishing attacks, any suspicious activity, and malware on devices.

Significance:

According to an article by The Washington Post, there have been over 160 vaccines developed by the United States, Britain, and Canada, and 23 so far have been tested on humans. Each day our researchers are getting closer and closer to a vaccine that works and could end this pandemic that has been going on for the past five months which have affected the world economically, physically, and emotionally. In my opinion, it doesn’t matter who discovers a working vaccine first, as long as it can lessen the cases and deaths due to the virus and could be shared with all countries.

Sources:

Ellen Nakashima, W. (2020, July 16). U.S., Britain and Canada say Russian cyberspies are trying to steal coronavirus vaccine research. Retrieved September 02, 2020, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/uk-us-and-canada-report-russian-cyberspies-may-be-trying-to-steal-vaccine-research/2020/07/16/d7c0dbd6-c765-11ea-a825-8722004e4150_story.html

Ng, A. (2020, July 16). Russian hackers allegedly behind cyberattacks to steal COVID-19 vaccine. CNET. https://www.cnet.com/news/russian-hackers-allegedly-behind-cyberattacks-to-steal-covid-19-vaccine/.

Sarkar, S. (2020, July 17). Russia accused of stealing Covid-19 vaccine research. Hindustan Times. https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/russia-accused-of-stealing-covid-19-vaccine-research/story-tIheVl9ECp3gmkBiQOkJEK.html.