According to a report released in the UK, the hacks were conducted by APT29 – also known as Cozy Bear – a hacker group that is reportedly by the Russian state and to date, has targeted universities, diplomatic agencies, and health organisations located around the world. The report further elaborates Cozy Bear’s actions, saying that the hacker group had been trying to steal intellectual property relating to vaccines. Via a variety of tools and techniques that involves port scanning and spear-phishing. As well as the deployment of a malware known as WellMess. As you can expect, the UK’s government was less than happy at the discovery and condemned Russia’s actions. Even describing its actions and selfish and reckless.
It should come as no surprise that Russia isn’t the only country to have been allegedly caught for hacking. Just a few months ago, the US’ FBI and Deparment of Homeland Security hurled a similar accusation towards China. Citing that the Asian economic powerhouse was backing a hacker group that were tasked to conduct espionage on coronavirus vaccine efforts being made in the US, as well as other countries. (Source: Techspot, UK NCSC // Image: Techspot)
