Russian intelligence agencies directly to blame for targeting vaccine research, says UK government

Britain today directly blamed Russian intelligence agencies for targeting centres in the West developing a vaccine against Covid-19.

The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre yesterday said a group called APT29 was carrying out the attacks and that it “almost certainly operates as part of Russian Intelligence Services”.

Security minister James Brokenshire this morning was even more categoric in laying the blame on the Russian state.

“It’s completely unacceptable for the Russian intelligence agencies to seek to get into the systems of those who are seeking to resond to this crisis, to develop pharmaceuticals, to develop a vaccine,” he told Sky News.

“It just underlines that where Russia claims to be playing by the rules, to be doing things in accordance with the international order, the reality is that they are seeking to exploit networks and to take action in a completely unacceptable and inappropriate way.”

The NSCC had asssesed that APT29, which had also used the names “the Dukes” or “Cozy Bear” , got into networks and was surveilling information, trying to find intellectual property which could be taken, but there was no evidence that anything had been stolen or damage done, Mr Brokenshire added.

However, he stressed: “That still is completely unacceptable for Russian intelligence officers to be acting...and groups...in this fashion...where we see this we will continue to call it out.”

The medical centres, which reportedly include the one in Oxford developing a vaccine and others including in the US and Canada, have been advised to step up their cyber protections as the attacks are believed to be an “on-going situation”.

Russia has denied responsibility.

“We do not have information about who may have hacked into pharmaceutical companies and research centres in Great Britain. We can say one thing - Russia has nothing at all to do with these attempts,” said Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for President Putin, according to the Tass news agency.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab yesterday accused Russian “actors” of seeking to interfere in last December’s general election in the UK by “amplifying” on the internet a leaked report about UK-US trade talks, though he did not blamed the Russian state for this action.

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