generalspeaking

Calling Out Russia

"Let's call out bad behaviour, reinforce a shared and common understanding of rules-based norms and deter malicious foreign cyber actors from targeting our country."
Canadian Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan

"[Canada can be assured of Britain's solidarity with Canada and the United States] against the reckless actions of Russia's intelligence services, who we have exposed today for committing cyber attacks [against those working on a COVID-19 vaccine."
British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab

Dominic Raab

@DominicRaab

against the reckless actions of Russia’s intelligence services, who we have exposed today for committing cyber attacks against those working on a #Covid19 vaccine - undermining vital cooperation to defeat this pandemic

UK condemns Russian Intelligence Services over vaccine cyber attacks

The Foreign Secretary has called out Russia’s unacceptable cyber attacks against COVID-19 vaccine developers.

gov.uk

"The group uses a variety of tools and techniques to predominantly target governmental, diplomatic, think-tank, health-care and energy targets for intelligence gains."
"APT29 is likely to continue to target organizations involved in COVID-19 vaccine research and development."
Center for Cyber Security, Communications Security Establishment

Security services in Canada, Britain and the U.S. have identified hackers believed to be working for Russian intelligence, attempting to purloin research from organizations in all three countries and around the world, focusing on COVID-19 vaccine research.Malicious cyber activities, according to Canada's Communications Security Establishment, were likely to have been undertaken to grab data and intellectual property regarding development and testing of vaccines for the novel coronavirus.

According to the CSE's Centre for Cyber Security a group known as APT29, known as well as "the Dukes" or "Cozy Bear" was responsible, and without doubt operate as a branch of Russian intelligence services. Partners at Britain's Government communications Headquarters National Cyber Security Centre, along with the U.S. National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency are all aligned in their assessment of the situation.

"These malicious cyber activities were very likely undertaken to steal information and intellectual property relating to the development and testing of COVID-19 vaccines, and serve to hinder response efforts at a time when health care experts and medical researchers need every available resource to help fight the pandemic."
"[APT29] is likely to continue to target organizations involved in COVID-19 vaccine research and development, as they seek to answer additional intelligence questions relating to the pandemic."
Joint assessment, CSE, the United Kingdom's National Cyber Security Centre and the National Security Agency in the U.S.