A Russian-backed hacker group has tried to steal COVID-19-related vaccine research in Canada, the UK and US according to intelligence agencies in all three countries. The Communications Security Establishment (CSE), responsible for Canada’s foreign signals intelligence, said APT29 — also known as Cozy Bear and the Dukes — is behind the malicious activity. The group “almost certainly operates as part of Russian intelligence services,” the CSE said in a statement released Thursday morning in co-ordination with its international counterparts, an allegation the Kremlin immediately denied. The CBC report on this incident says the CSE account of this spying suggests the Russians were also acting to slow down vaccine research in the three countries.
Wow! Hope offered for UK vaccine by September
David Carpenter, chair of the Berkshire Research Ethics Committee, which approved the successful trial of a prospective vaccine at Oxford University, is quoted Thursday in The Telegraph as saying the vaccine research team is “absolutely on track” and that a powerful vaccine could be available as early as September. Fingers crossed.
