Coronavirus: suspected North Korean hackers pose as recruiters to target vaccine firm AstraZeneca
- The intruders posed as recruiters on LinkedIn to approach the UK drug maker’s staff with fake job offers
- They then sent documents purporting to be job descriptions that were laced with malicious code designed to gain access to a victim’s computer
The hackers posed as recruiters on networking site LinkedIn and WhatsApp to approach AstraZeneca staff with fake job offers, the sources said. They then sent documents purporting to be job descriptions that were laced with malicious code designed to gain access to a victim’s computer.
The hacking attempts targeted a “broad set of people” including staff working on Covid-19 research, said one of the sources, but are not thought to have been successful.
The North Korean mission to the United Nations in Geneva did not respond to a request for comment. Pyongyang has previously denied carrying out cyberattacks. It has no direct line of contact for foreign media.
AstraZeneca, which has emerged as one of the top three Covid-19 vaccine developers, declined to comment.
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