Microsoft revealed today that Covid-19 Vaccine researchers & companies are being attacked by hackers from North Korea and Russia. Among the target are seven prominent pharmaceutical companies & researchers who have vaccines at various stages of clinical trials.
Microsoft didn’t specifically mention any company name or details but stated that the hackers are attacking the majority of the Covid 19 vaccine research companies based in the US, Canada, France, India, and South Korea.
” It’s disturbing that these challenges have now merged as cyberattacks are being used to disrupt health care organizations fighting the pandemic. We think these attacks are unconscionable and should be condemned by all civilized society.” Tom Burt, Microsoft, Corporate Vice President, Customer Security & Trust.
Microsoft says most of the attacks have been blocked by inbuilt security systems and those companies where the attacks were successful have been notified and Microsoft has also offered help to recover from any losses.
The hackers used various types of attack methods according to blogpost like password spray, brute force login attempts to steal login credentials and spears phishing attacks where hackers pose themselves as job recruiters or job seekers and as World Health Organization representatives.
Microsoft has urged Govt to do more and have called upon the world’s leaders to affirm that international law protects health care facilities and to take action to enforce the law.