Microsoft says it detected three APTs, from N. Korea and Russia, that launched attacks on at least seven companies developing a COVID-19 vaccine or treatments
At least seven companies developing COVID-19 vaccines or treatments are now defending against three named state-sponsored groups — Strontium, Zinc, and Cerium — meaning security teams at those firms must triage indicators from a Microsoft advisory rather than treat this as isolated intrusion attempts.
Microsoft positions itself as the primary public source of attribution on these campaigns, a role it also claimed with its later 'high confidence' linking of an infosec-researcher hacking spree to Zinc, the DPRK-affiliated group.
Second-order effects
Vaccine developers and their research partners face pressure to harden credential systems and phishing defenses against simultaneous Russian and North Korean tradecraft, since the July APT29 attribution and this disclosure show multiple states running parallel campaigns against the same sector.
Government cyber agencies in the US and UK, having already named APT29, gain corroboration for expanding warnings about nation-state interest in pharmaceutical supply chains — pushing smaller biotech firms without dedicated threat-intel teams into reliance on vendor advisories like Microsoft's.
Third-order effects
If the pattern holds, pandemic-era medical research becomes a standing target where rival nation-states operate concurrently against the same companies, normalizing continuous state espionage against pharma rather than episodic campaigns tied to single events like the Olympics or an election cycle.
Private-sector attribution — Microsoft naming specific APTs faster than governments — cements large cloud vendors as de facto intelligence publishers, shifting how companies and policymakers learn who is attacking critical industries.
The trend: State-sponsored hacking is converging on strategically valuable health research, with Microsoft's rapid private-sector attribution becoming the primary way the public learns which nations are involved.
Here it is! First corporate victim of debunked information about a “first death following ransomware infection” (that didn't happen but the Microsoft PR/Comms team was slow in appreciating it) https://blogs.microsoft.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
Nation-state cyberattacks on health care professionals and people working to save humanity from #COVID19 must be answered. @Microsoft has a new report on three attackers, out today at the @ParisPeaceForum. https://blogs.microsoft.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
Cyberattacks targeting the healthcare sector are unconscionable and should be condemned by all civilized society. Today, we're sharing an update on recent nation-state attacks targeting companies combatting the COVID-19 pandemic. https://blogs.microsoft.com/ ...
Microsoft, this is just embarrassing. There are plenty of reasons to make a solid case for leaving the carenet alone without having to lie. https://twitter.com/...
Cyberattacks on healthcare institutions responding to the COVID-19 pandemic are unconscionable. We need world leaders to come together & condemn this behavior by affirming and enforcing international laws to protect frontline workers & critical research. https://blogs.microsoft.c…
Microsoft framing what appears to be espionage/intelligence collection as ‘cyberattacks’ on vaccine researchers is unhelpful. Conflating espionage with sabotage is just going to serve to make people more frightened than is necessary: https://blogs.microsoft.com/ ...
New blog from Microsoft details ongoing activity targeting COVID-19 researchers and vaccine development. Also goes hard on the need for international laws to protect healthcare facilities from cyberattacks. 👏https://blogs.microsoft.com/ ...
New-Microsoft says it detected cyberattacks from three nation-state actors targeting 7 companies involved in COVID vaccines and treatments in Canada, France, India, S Korea and US. Attacks came from Strontium (Russian group) and two groups from N Korea https://blogs.microsoft.com…
Out now: Microsoft has detected cyberattacks from three nation-state actors targeting seven prominent companies directly involved in researching vaccines and treatments for Covid-19. Learn more here: https://blogs.microsoft.com/ ...
Call from @TomBurt45 of Microsoft for greater action against criminal and state healthcare threats. As numbers climb and healthcare capacity is overwhelmed this becomes more serious. https://blogs.microsoft.com/ ...
Russian and North Korean hackers have recently targeted seven “prominent companies” researching coronavirus treatments and vaccines, and in some cases the attacks were successful, Microsoft said today. https://subscriber.politicopro.com/ ... https://blogs.microsoft.com/ ...
In recent months, Microsoft has detected cyberattacks out of Russia and North Korea targeting 7 companies involved in researching COVID-19 vaccines and treatments. https://blogs.microsoft.com/ ...
New: Microsoft says hackers backed by Russia and North Korea have targeted COVID-19 vaccine makers. Microsoft said it blocked the majority of the attacks, but acknowledged some were successful. https://techcrunch.com/...