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According to Reuters, North Korean hackers posed as recruiters on the LinkedIn and WhatsApp networking site to approach AstraZeneca staff, including those working on coronavirus research, with bogus job postings.
The alleged hackers then sent documents, some using Russian email addresses, which were purported to be job descriptions that were in fact laced with malicious code designed to give hackers access to the victim’s computers, Reuters reported.
According to Reuters sources, the hackers are not believed to have been successful.
While AstraZeneca declined to comment on the matter, Oxford University, which is working closely with the drugmaker to develop a coronavirus vaccine, told CNN in a statement that the university is working closely with the UK’s National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) to ensure your protection.
“The University of Oxford is working closely with the National Center for Cyber Security to ensure that our COVID-19 research has the best possible cyber security and protection,” a university spokesperson told CNN.
The NCSC has not directly commented on the matter, but told CNN on Friday that it is “committed to protecting our most critical assets, the healthcare sector, and the research and development of crucial vaccines against threats.”
CNN has reached out to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s mission to the United Nations in Geneva for an official comment, but has yet to receive a response.
In a telephone conversation with CNN, a member of the mission staff called the Reuters report “fake news”, claiming that the information had been “fabricated.”
The report comes after a South Korean lawmaker said the country had also thwarted North Korea’s attempts to hack into its own drug companies working on coronavirus vaccines.
Speaking on Friday, lawmaker Ha Tae-Keung did not say when the hack occurred or which pharmaceutical companies were targeted, but confirmed that North Korea had tried to hack into South Korean pharmaceutical companies that are developing local vaccines for the coronavirus.
