North Korean hackers have recently been implicated in targeting and attempting to steal information about the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday.
newspaper reported that South Korea’s National Intelligence Service briefed South Korean lawmakers on the threat during a closed-door briefing earlier this week.
According to the publication, Ha Tae-keung, a parliamentarian and member of the committee, reported on the issue, saying that the alleged hackers were following the COVID-19 vaccine and other Pfizer technologies developed around the pandemic. He noted that South Korea has seen a 32% increase in the last year in cyber attacks in North Korea.
It was not immediately clear whether the hacking efforts were successful.
Pfizer did not respond to Hill’s request for comment.
The news comes on the heels of both foreign hackers and cyber criminals who have stepped up their efforts in the past year to go after COVID-19 vaccines and related medical research.
The Pfizer vaccine, developed in conjunction with BioNTech, was one of the vaccines affected by data breach of the European Medicines Agency of the European Union in December. Hackers were able to access documents on the Pfizer vaccine and the one developed by Moderna, both of which were subject to evaluation and approval in the EU.
North Korea has previously been linked to COVID-19 vaccine research Wall Street Journal Reporting In December, North Korean hackers attempted to hack six pharmaceutical groups involved in the development of COVID-19 vaccine in both the United States and South Korea.
The US COVID-19 vaccine supply chain has also been threatened by hacking efforts. Officials warned last year that the distribution process, especially cold storage groups, was targeted.
Harmful 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 were victims of ransomware attacks that hampered critical services.