APT29 targets Covid-19 vaccine development

https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/news/advisory-apt29-targets-covid-19-vaccine-development

by jbegley • 6 years ago

49 15 6 years ago

ncsc.gov.uk

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.

Vaccine makers are trying to hide their work behind the veil of "intellectual property". The makers of this malware want the information. For what purpose do the 'malware' authors want the information?

1. To make a vaccine that works. Making a vaccine is an objective good.

2. To discover flaws with the vaccine that the company developing the vaccine would rather keep secret. Alerting the public to dangerous vaccines is an objective good.

I believe the real story here is that governments allow vaccine development companies to hide their work behind a shield of intellectual property, while the world needs a vaccine as quickly as possible.

number101010• 6 years ago

I think it's fair to say that:

3. This information is worth an enormous amount of money.

blendergeek3• 6 years ago

That would explain why the current companies are attempting to hide information that could be used to save lives. Is that a moral justification for the government granting the vaccine companies a monopoly on the information, even though free sharing of the information could save even more lives?

londons_explore• 6 years ago

There is the possibility this APT group is trying to disrupt vaccine development because they want to watch the world burn, or they have a competing vaccine.

I doubt that is the case, but you can bet that's going to be the side the media will take...

blendergeek3• 6 years ago

How does what they are doing disrupt vaccine development?

lowmemcpu• 6 years ago

2. To discover flaws with the vaccine that the company developing the vaccine would rather keep secret. Alerting the public to dangerous vaccines is an objective good.

You seem to think that this is a net positive, but they could could also keep it secret, which is a net negative. So #3 would be to keep the flaws secret with the intention to potentially exploit the flaws in the future

caycep• 6 years ago

If it is APT29, their motive and directive, and what they are paid for, is to ensure Russia's national interest. Which is probably access to capability, although denial of capability is also possible. That all the other stuff dovetails is just happy coincident.

p1anecrazy• 6 years ago

Russia is one of the countries with the highest number of coronavirus cases. Decades-long brain drain makes a development of its own vaccine impossible. Now state-employed hackers try to steal an already developed one to mass produce it for Russian population.

jimrandomh• 6 years ago

The simple explanation here is that Putin asked for the best-possible information about when a vaccine will be ready, and their intelligence agency decided that to answer confidently, they needed to look at non-public documents.

They would likely also be looking to manufacture their own supply, using intellectual property they can't otherwise access. This would be a straightforwardly good thing; vaccines made with stolen IP still save lives, and those lives matter a lot more than how money moves around.

(Sabotage, on the other hand, would be unforgivable. But there is no evidence of that happening, so it's best not to speculate about baseless accusations.)

meowface• 6 years ago

Agreed. This sort of thing happens pretty regularly. It's just like using spy planes: powerful states like to be able to extend their gaze as far as possible.

fredgrott• 6 years ago

Is it somewhat obvious..could not Putin just oh say stop hacking and ask for it say oh gosh via the UN WHO?

APT29 targets Covid-19 vaccine development

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