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Cybercriminals posed as recruiters on LinkedIn and the WhatsApp messenger.
Hackers, presumably from North Korea, tried to hack into the systems of the British drug manufacturer AstraZeneca, which is developing a vaccine against coronavirus infection (COVID-19). This was reported to the Reuters news agency by two knowledgeable sources.
According to sources, the hackers impersonated recruiters on the social networking site LinkedIn and WhatsApp messenger to send fake job offers to AstraZeneca employees. The attackers sent documents with malicious code, allegedly describing their job responsibilities. The malware was designed to gain access to the victim's computer. The hacking attempts have targeted “a wide range of people,” including personnel working on the COVID-19 study.
Sources noted that the tools and techniques used in the attacks were part of a major malware campaign that US officials and cybersecurity researchers linked to North Korea. The campaign previously focused on defense industries and media organizations, but in recent weeks it has focused on goals related to COVID-19 research.
According to one source, some of the accounts used in the attacks on AstraZeneca were registered to Russian email addresses, which may have been an attempt to mislead investigators.
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Hackers, presumably from North Korea, tried to hack into the systems of the British drug manufacturer AstraZeneca, which is developing a vaccine against coronavirus infection (COVID-19). This was reported to the Reuters news agency by two knowledgeable sources.
According to sources, the hackers impersonated recruiters on the social networking site LinkedIn and WhatsApp messenger to send fake job offers to AstraZeneca employees. The attackers sent documents with malicious code, allegedly describing their job responsibilities. The malware was designed to gain access to the victim's computer. The hacking attempts have targeted “a wide range of people,” including personnel working on the COVID-19 study.
Sources noted that the tools and techniques used in the attacks were part of a major malware campaign that US officials and cybersecurity researchers linked to North Korea. The campaign previously focused on defense industries and media organizations, but in recent weeks it has focused on goals related to COVID-19 research.
According to one source, some of the accounts used in the attacks on AstraZeneca were registered to Russian email addresses, which may have been an attempt to mislead investigators.
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