The hackers posed as recruiters on networking site LinkedIn and WhatsApp to approach AstraZeneca staff with fake job offers, the sources said. The hacking attempts targeted a "broad set of people" including staff working on COVID-19 research, said one of the sources, but are not thought to have been successful. The North Korean mission to the United Nations in Geneva did not respond to a request for comment. AstraZeneca, which has emerged as one of the top three COVID-19 vaccine developers, declined to comment. Microsoft said this month it had seen two North Korean hacking groups target vaccine developers in multiple countries, including by "sending messages with fabricated job descriptions."

Source: bd News24 November 27, 2020 11:37 UTC