The intrusion is compared to the days of the Cold War when the Eastern and Western blocs through espionage tried to access technical information to gain an advantage in the lunar race.

Now it is instead a matter of wanting to be at the forefront of the fight to find a vaccine against the new coronavirus.

According to the New York Times, the British, American and Canadian governments say that a Russian hacker group is using the chaos that has arisen during the pandemic to steal information from universities and other organizations researching coronavina vaccines.

Known as "Cozy bear"

According to the newspaper, the hackers used malicious software and fraudulent e-mails to get the companies' employees to reveal their passwords, among other things.

The hacker group is known under the names "Cozy bear" and "APT29" and is said to have links to the Russian intelligence service.

According to representatives of the American intelligence service, the intrusion is not about trying to sabotage the research, but about twisting information in order to be the first to launch a vaccine.

Representatives of the Western governments do not want to say who have been the main targets of the attacks. But according to Robert Hannigan, former head of GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters - part of MI5), Oxford University and Swedish-British Astra Zeneca have been the most vulnerable bodies, writes the New York Times.

Astra Zeneca does not want to comment

SVT has been in contact with Astra Zeneca, which, however, does not want to comment on the information:

- We do not usually comment on such things because they are safety issues, says Christina Malmberg Hägerstrand, press manager at Astra Zeneca.

Can you confirm that you have received this information from the governments?

- Again, I can not comment.

The Kremlin mocked the statement that Russian hackers had subjected organizations to these cyber attacks and said they did not know who may have carried out the intrusion. According to a representative of the Russian government, it is all an attempt to discredit Russia's work to develop a vaccine.