New nightmare: vaccine thieves – interesting news

As the vaccine research continued, the race became very hot and promising news came from the countries. However, there is another war in the background: cyber attacks. State-sponsored hackers are attempting to steal the secrets of the coronavirus vaccine, which security experts describe as a “war on intellectual property.”

Since the outbreak began, countries have only one goal to end the coronavirus outbreak. Until now, the greatest effort has been made to find the vaccine, but there are also those who want to collaborate with the available vaccine. According to The Guardian, government-sponsored hackers from China, Russia, Iran and North Korea are trying to access vaccine-specific information. The pirates are also accused of obtaining sensitive information on mass production.

“IT HAS BECOME A MATTER OF NATIONAL PRIDE”

With the discovery of the vaccine, the hackers’ only goal is to obtain information on corona virus vaccines. Adam Meyers, director of US cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike, said: “What appears here is actually the final stage of the intellectual property war, but a stage where much more is at stake for the people involved. “This has now become a matter of national pride.” However, although states are aware of many of these attacks, they are cautious due to diplomatic concerns.

COUNTRIES DO NOT ACCEPT CRIMES

When it comes to cyber attacks, Russia and China are the main countries that are blamed. However, these two countries obviously do not accept any of the claims. While Russia says it is unaware of the attack attempts, China says it is already far ahead in vaccination studies than many states, so it doesn’t need that information anyway. Iran, on the other hand, completely refuses to interfere in the cyber warfare discussion.

Cyber ​​security experts working in the public and private sectors say government sponsored hackers work in coordination with espionage and defense agencies. On the other hand, the UK’s National Cyber ​​Security Center claimed that corona virus vaccine research labs have been targeted by Russian government hackers in the US and Canada. Experts say cyber attacks often come from China, Iran and North Korea. In September, China-backed hackers were accused by Spain of stealing Covid research secrets.

ACADEMIC INSTITUTIONS ARE DEFENSE AGAINST ATTACKS

Cyber ​​security experts say pharmaceutical companies have an advantage because they have already been prepared for these attacks in the past. However, the same cannot be said for many academic institutions. Experts agree that scientists working in academia should be educated on these attacks.

THE METHOD OF VARIABLE ATTACKS

Russian-backed hackers are believed to primarily use the “password spraying” method. In other words, you try to crack passwords by using a common word after general passwords. Another method is more complicated. A malware download link is sent to the company’s employee email containing the information required to be compromised. For example, a news about Covid is sent to the email of a person who works in this company, and the software is installed on the computer when the user clicks on that link. This method is called “phishing”.

Recently, a very surprising statement came from Microsoft on the subject. It was claimed that seven companies directly involved in the Corona virus vaccine and treatment studies were cyber attacks from three states. The company claimed that one of the perpetrators of the attack was North Korea. According to Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President, Tom Burt, it was alleged that “phishing” was used in the attack and the user was attempted to be trapped “disguised as a representative of the World Health Organization”.