DISINFO: It is speculation to say that cyberattacks against vaccine producers originated in Russia
SUMMARY
The news of cyberattacks originating from Russia against companies developing a Coronavirus vaccine is just speculation, determined by the political trend, and Moscow regrets that it has become customary in the United States to blame Russia for everything.
RESPONSE
Recurrent pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative denying any involvement of the Russian government in hacker attacks and cyber-crime.
Cyberattacks in recent months originating in Russia and North Korea have targeted online accounts at seven companies researching Covid-19 drugs and vaccines, according to Microsoft.
The cyberattacks originating in Russia have targeted the drug companies’ online accounts by training millions of rapid-fire login attempts at their computer systems, hoping to get lucky and guess their way into a victim’s account.
According to Microsoft, the Russian-linked hacking group behind these latest cyberattacks is called "Strontium" AKA “APT 28”, AKA “Sednit”, AKA “Sofacy”, AKA “Fancy Bear”, the majority of this group's attacks during the last years were detected and stopped by security tools built into Microsoft products.
The U.S. government says the group is linked to Russian military intelligence, while Microsoft points out that this group, who has been active since at least 2007, is connected to a series of cyberattacks on U.S. and NATO and European targets. Additional targets have included journalists, political advisors, and organisations associated with political activism in Central Asia, and anti-doping organisations.
Read similar cases claiming that cyberattacks against Georgia didn’t originate from Russia, or that accusations about Russian-sponsored hacker attacks aim to discredit Russia’s anti-COVID vaccine, or that accusations against Russia’ 2018 cyber-attacks OPCW are groundless.