North Korean hackers were recently involved in attacking and attempting to steal information about Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.
The newspaper reported Which South Korea’s National Intelligence Agency briefed South Korean lawmakers during a behind-closed-door briefing of the threat earlier this week.
According to the Post, Ha Tae-keung, a lawmaker and committee member who was briefed on the matter, said the alleged hackers were behind the COVID-19 vaccine and other Pfizer technology developed around the pandemic. He noted that South Korea had seen a 32 percent spike in cyber attacks from North Korea in the past year.
It was not immediately clear whether the hacking attempts were successful.
Pfizer did not respond to The Hill’s request for comment.
The news comes on the heels of both foreign and cyber-criminal hackers who have stepped up efforts over the past year to get behind COVID-19 vaccines and related medical research.
The Pfizer vaccine, developed with BioNTech, was one of the vaccines that the data breach of the European Medicines Agency of the European Union in December. Hackers had access to documents about Pfizer’s vaccine and the vaccine developed by Moderna, both of which had been submitted for evaluation and approval in the EU.
North Korea was previously bound to direct COVID-19 vaccine research, with The Wall Street Journal reports in December that North Korean hackers had attempted to hack into six pharmaceutical groups involved in the development of COVID-19 vaccines in both the US and South Korea.
The COVID-19 vaccine supply chain in the US is also under threat from hacking attempts. Officials warned last year that the distribution process, especially cold stores, was the target.
Malicious cyber activity has targeted other organizations involved in the response to the coronavirus pandemic.
The World Health Organization and the US Department of Health and Human Services were both victims of cyber attacks last year, and hospitals in the US and around the world have been victims of ransomware attacks that have hampered critical services.