Government reviewing response to ‘unacceptable’ Russia hack, says minister
The UK is reviewing its response to Russian-backed attempts to steal coronavirus vaccine research, security minister James Brokenshire said this morning.
Yesterday the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) issued a statement in conjunction with counterparts in the US and Canada saying that hacking group Cozy Bear had been attempting to steal Covid-19 research from institutions around the world.
The NCSC said the group “almost certainly operate as part of Russian Intelligence Services”, allegations which the Kremlin rejected.
Speaking to Sky News this morning, Brokenshire reiterated the allegations, but said there had been no lasting damage from the attack.
“It’s completely unacceptable for the Russian intelligence agencies to seek to get into the systems of those who are seeking to respond to this crisis to develop a vaccine,” he said.
“There’s no evidence or information of any damage or, or any sort of harm.”
It is believed that the UK’s two coronavirus vaccine projects at Oxford University and Imperial College have likely been targets and the NCSC is currently working with them to be aware of future attacks.
APT-29 – the group’s official name – has also targeted labs working on therapeutic treatments for the new disease.
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“The National Cyber Security Centre has a 95 percent plus confidence rating in relation to this”, Brokenshire said.
“We are confident that Russian actors, Russian intelligence organisations were behind this.
“Therefore we keep our response under review raising our sense of vigilance and calling out actions when we see them as we have done in this case.”
The hacking bombshell was one of three announcements related to Russian interference in UK politics to come to light yesterday.
Foreign secretary Dominic Raab released a statement confirming it is “almost certain that Russian actors sought to interfere in the 2019 general election through the online amplification” of confidential UK-US trade negotiation documents.
Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn held a press conference on 27 November to widely release the documents, which he said showed the “NHS was for sale” in UK-US trade negotiations – a claim widely disputed.
And the parliamentary intelligence and security committee also confirmed that it would release its long-awaited report into Russian interference in UK politics next week.