Suspected North Korean hackers have allegedly attempted hacking into the systems of British drugmaker AstraZeneca. Reuters reports that the attacks as recent as in the past two weeks are not unconnected with the companies plan to deploy its COVID-19 vaccine soon.

Additionally, the hackers posed as recruiters on networking sites LinkedIn and WhatsApp to approach AstraZeneca staff with fake job offers. Then they sent documents purporting to be job descriptions laced with malicious code designed to gain access to a victim’s computer.

According to Reuters, the hacking attempts were targeted at a broad set of people. They include staff working on COVID-19 research, however, the attempts were unsuccessful according to reports.

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North Korea has previously denied carrying out cyberattacks. Its Mission to the United Nations also didn’t respond when asked for a comment by Reuters. Cyberattacks against health bodies, vaccine scientists, and drugmakers have spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic as groups are trying to obtain the latest research and information about the pandemic and a possible vaccine.

Microsoft, earlier in November 2020, reported that two North Korean hacking groups targeted vaccine developers in multiple countries. The software giant said the method involved  sending messages with fabricated job descriptions. This fits the description of this attempt at hacking AstraZeneca.

Some of the accounts in the attacks on AstraZeneca were registered to Russian email addresses. However, Reuters reports that they could have been an attempt to distract investigators.

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