Covid-19: North Korea tried to hack Pfizer data
Pfizer has developed a vaccine against Covid-19 in partnership with BioNTech.
REUTERS - DADO RUVIC
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North Korean "hackers" sought to break into the computer systems of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer to find information on the vaccine and treatments for the coronavirus, media reported Tuesday (February 16th) citing South Korean intelligence services. .
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The National Intelligence Service (NIS) "
informed us that North Korea had tried to obtain technologies including the vaccine and treatments for Covid by means of a cyber attack to hack Pfizer
", the American pharmaceutical giant South Korean MP Ha Tae-keung told reporters on Tuesday.
Pyongyang was the first country in the world to close its borders at the end of January 2020 in an attempt to protect itself from the pandemic that appeared in December 2019 in neighboring China.
Authorities say North Korea recorded just
one
confirmed
case
of the coronavirus last July, but experts say this claim is unlikely given that neighboring China is Pyongyang's main trading and support partner.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 6,000 cases were considered suspect at the end of 2020.
An official request for vaccines
According to Western experts, North Korea has an army of several thousand highly trained hackers who have already attacked companies, institutions and research centers, especially in South Korea.
Despite the official absence of the epidemic in North Korea, the country recently applied for vaccines against Covid-19, of which it is expected to receive nearly two million doses, according to the Vaccine Alliance (Gavi), member of the UN
Covax program
which coordinates the distribution of vaccines to poor countries.
North Korea's medical infrastructure is considered totally inadequate to cope with a large-scale epidemic.
(with AFP)
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