Tag Archive for: sources

North Korea authorised cyber gang to steal Britain’s Covid vaccine secrets, sources say


Vaccine cyber illustration

North Korea authorised a state-sponsored cyber gang to pose as headhunters in an attempt to steal Britain’s Covid-19 vaccine secrets, security sources said on Friday.

The cyber criminals targeted AstraZeneca, the pharmaceutical company working with Oxford University to develop the UK’s Covid vaccine. Initial results suggest the Oxford vaccine is anywhere between 60 per cent and 90 per cent effective, and regulators have now been asked to appraise it.

The hackers approached staff working with AstraZeneca, based at its headquarters in Cambridge, with fake job offers. Posing as recruiters working on behalf of rival firms, they sent messages over the past few weeks via the social networking site LinkedIn and also through messaging service WhatsApp.

AstraZeneca employees were then sent documents, claiming to be job descriptions, which included malicious computer code designed to allow the hackers access to the company’s computer systems.

The tools and techniques used by the cyber gang are commonly deployed by North Korea, and security sources have confirmed that the country is believed to be behind the attempted hack. Sources said the attempt was believed to have been unsuccessful.

The targeting of AstraZeneca comes just a few weeks after Downing Street took the unusual step of going public in accusing Russia of being behind a separate “despicable” cyber attack on Britain’s two vaccine teams, the one at Oxford and another run by Imperial College London.

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), the intelligence agency tasked with protecting the UK from cyber warfare, said at the time it had the “highest level of confidence” that the Kremlin was behind the “ongoing” attack.

On Friday, the NCSC declined to give further detail on the North Korean hack but did not deny that attempts had been made by the rogue state to steal vaccine secrets.

An NCSC spokesman said: “Working alongside our allies, the NCSC is committed to protecting our most critical assets, the health sector and crucial vaccine research and development against threats.”

The respected Reuters news agency said the North Korean gang had targeted a…

Source…

Garmin global outage caused by ransomware attack, sources say – TechCrunch

  1. Garmin global outage caused by ransomware attack, sources say  TechCrunch
  2. Garmin attacked by WastedLocker ransomware in demand for $ 10 million  Cyclingnews.com
  3. Garmin services and production go down after ransomware attack  ZDNet
  4. Garmin Suffers Global Outage And Ransomware May Be To Blame  Forbes
  5. Garmin Online Services Reportedly Hit With Ransomware Attack  ExtremeTech
  6. View Full Coverage on read more

“malware news” – read more

Chinese hackers seen behind cyberattack on easyJet: sources – Reuters

  1. Chinese hackers seen behind cyberattack on easyJet: sources  Reuters
  2. Chinese hackers suspected of stealing details of 9 million easyJet customers  Reuters UK
  3. Chinese hackers ‘suspected to be responsible’ for easyJet hack  The Independent
  4. Did Chinese hackers steal data of 9 million easyJet passengers?  Aljazeera.com
  5. Chinese hackers suspected of easyJet cyber attack as 9million customers’ personal details stolen  The Sun
  6. View Full Coverage on read more

“chinese hackers” – read more