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Microsoft on Friday said cyberattacks originating in Russia and North Korea targeted pharmaceutical companies developing COVID-19 vaccine.
Seven leading pharma firms and vaccine researchers in Canada, France, India, South Korea and the United States were targeted in the attack.
Most of these firms are at various stages of clinical trials. One is involved in trials, and another has developed COVID-19 test. Other targeted organisations have contracts with or investments from government agencies for COVID-19 related work.
Microsoft has blocked a majority of these attacks, but some were successful, and the tech giant has notified all targeted organisations.
Microsoft has blamed attacks on three hacker groups: Strontium, an actor originating from Russia; and two actors from North Korea called Zinc and Cerium.
Strontium is said to have used password spray and brute force login attempts to steal credentials.
Zinc and Cerium both use spear phishing method to lure users into sharing their credentials.
Published - November 16, 2020 01:53 pm IST
