U.K. intelligence reports Russian hackers are infiltrating companies developing COVID-19 vaccines – By Mark Sumner (Daily Kos) / July 16 2020
If you could take the two most defining catastrophes of Trump’s period in the White House—the one that brought him in the door, and the one that may help carry him out—and smash them together into one godawful Frankenstein of 2020 on a plate, what would that look like? Now you know. The U.K.’s National Cyber Security Centre has published a report showing that Russian hackers are attacking not just governments, not just social media, but companies and organizations directly involved in trying to develop a vaccine for COVID-19.
We already knew that Russia was trying to destroy American democracy. And recent months have made it clear that Russia was engaged in trying to murder Americans through a proxy war in which they offer bounties to terrorists. Now it seems that Russia is attempting to kill everyone—or to at least keep much of the world swimming in chaos, illness, and economic disaster—by directly interfering in the development of a vaccine. And it’s not just any group of Russian hackers. The U.K. report specifically mentions “Cozy Bear,” the same group that worked to put Donald Trump in the White House.
Cozy Bear, also called APT29, is a part of the Russian Intelligence Service with direct connection into the military. As the report points out, they’ve been Russia’s all-purpose, go-to bad actors when it comes to attacking governments, peeking into diplomatic secrets, messing with electrical grids, and basically stealing any intellectual property worth taking. When it comes to COVID-19, they’re not just hacking into those busy working on potential vaccines—the group has also infiltrated organizations involved in tracking the pandemic, and national and international efforts to formulate a response.
Continue to article: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/7/16/1961258/-U-K-intelligence-reports-Russia-hackers-are-infiltrating-companies-developing-COVID-19-vaccines#read-more
