Covid-19 crisis: US, UK allege Russians are trying to steal vaccine

Russian state intelligence is hacking international research centres that are racing to develop a Covid-19 vaccine, the UK, the US, and Canadian governments said.

It is unclear whether research facilities have been damaged or if the vaccine programmes have been set back as a result of the hacks, but officials warned that the cyberattacks are ongoing.

In a dramatic statement on Thursday, Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) said vaccine and therapeutic sectors in multiple countries had been targeted by a group known as APT29, which it said was “almost certainly” part of Russian state intelligence. Security agencies in the US and