North Korean Hackers Use WhatsApp, LinkedIn in Attempt to Hack Covid Vaccine Data from AstraZeneca

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Hackers associated with North Korea have reportedly targeted AstraZeneca, the British pharmaceutical company that announced this month it had developed a vaccine capable of preventing the coronavirus.

The perpetrators used LinkedIn and Facebook’s WhatsApp to pose as recruiters and to send fake job offers to staff at the company, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. They then sent documents to the victims that they claimed were job descriptions, but that allowed for the hackers to access to victims’ computers once opened.

The sources said the effort targeted a “broad set of people,” but claimed the effort was unsuccessful.

It isn’t clear how many citizens of North Korea have contracted Covid-19, but South Korean intelligence officials said Friday they believed the country had been taking aggressive measures to halt the spread. That included an August execution of an official who allegedly violated quarantine measures by bringing items across the country’s border with China.

AstraZeneca became the third company this month, after Moderna and Pfizer, to say it had developed a vaccine that was capable of preventing most recipients from contracting the coronavirus. Those vaccines are expected to become available to high-risk groups in many countries by mid-December, with billions of doses expected by mid-2021.

Microsoft warned in early November that it had discovered two hacking groups in North Korea — known as “Zinc” and “Cerium” — attempting to hack pharmaceutical companies in several countries, in addition to one Russian group known as “Strontium.”