DISINFO: Russia accused of cyber attacks to steal vaccine research data in the context of a global information war
SUMMARY
Russia has been accused of conducting cyber attacks to steal vaccine research data in the context of a global information war against the Russian vaccine Sputnik V.
RESPONSE
The article provides no evidence to support its claim that accusations of Russian involvement in cyber-espionage against Covid vaccine research are related to the West’s alleged “information war” against the Sputnik V vaccine.
The article repeats a recurrent disinformation narrative denying any involvement of the Russian government in hacker attacks and cyber-crime. This narrative rejects as baseless and absurd any accusations of Russian-sponsored hostile cyber-operations against Western targets, and often claims that such accusations are motivated by “Russophobia” or seek to distract the attention of Western public opinion from real problems.
The article seeks to convey the message that the accusations about Russian cyber-operations targeting Western COVID-vaccine research are baseless and are part of an “information war” against the Russian Sputnik V vaccine. This message is false. Such accusations are backed up by detailed investigations about these cyber-attacks and are unrelated to the Sputnik V vaccine.
On July 16, 2020, the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) - together with Canada’s Communications Security Establishment (CSE) and the United States’ National Security Agency (NSA) – issued a report on the targeting of COVID-19 vaccine development by the APT29 cyber-espionage group (also known as ‘the Dukes’ or ‘Cozy Bear’).
The report assesses that APT29 is almost certainly part of the Russian intelligence services and that throughout 2020, APT29 has targeted various organisations involved in COVID-19 vaccine development in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom, highly likely with the intention of stealing information and intellectual property relating to the development and testing of COVID-19 vaccines. This report is based on serious investigative work and reflects the genuine concern of the UK, US and Canadian governments about the cyber-espionage activities of Russian intelligence services. The report has nothing to do with alleged efforts to “discredit the Russian anti-COVID vaccine”.
Russian state actors have been proven to be actively involved in hostile cyber-operations, including malicious cyberattacks, hacking of foreign states and entities, as well as running disinformation campaigns. For further background see here and here.
Read a similar case claiming that accusations about Russian-sponsored hacker attacks aim to discredit Russia’s anti-COVID vaccine and that the Dutch government’s accusations against Russia for the 2018 cyber-attacks on the headquarters of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) are groundless.