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Hackers from abroad tried to steal Russian coronavirus vaccine inventions — FSB

As their priority task, foreign special services sought to obtain access to protected information and disrupt the operation of vital information infrastructure, according to the deputy director of the National Coordination Center for Computer Incidents

MOSCOW, April 21. /TASS/. Hackers from abroad tried to steal Russian coronavirus vaccine inventions, Deputy Director of the National Coordination Center for Computer Incidents set up by the Federal Security Service (FSB) Nikolai Murashov said on Wednesday.

"The perpetrators showed special interest in the results of scientific studies and Russian coronavirus vaccine inventions," he said at the conference on IT security Infoforum in Yaroslavl.

The data gathered by the National Coordination Center for Computer Incidents for 2020 indicate that most computer attacks on the Russian information space were carried out from abroad, mostly from the territory of the United States, China, Germany and the Netherlands, Murashov noted.

The hackers targeted state governance, financial, defense industry, scientific, educational, healthcare and transport entities. As their priority task, foreign special services sought to obtain access to protected information and disrupt the operation of vital information infrastructure, he said.

The remote work regime introduced during the period of the pandemic prompted an increase in cyberattacks on the staff’s remote access services. In particular, the hackers made intrusions into computers with malware to steal valuable information, he said.