SEOUL – North Korea has been accused of attempting to steal key information on COVID-19 vaccine and treatment by launching a cyberattack against Pfizer, a leading US pharmaceutical company whose coronavirus vaccine’s jabs are being given to millions of people across the globe.
South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) revealed it during a meeting of a parliamentary panel of the country.
Pyongyang has closed its borders since January 2020 while country’s leader Kim Jong Un has repeatedly claimed that there is no coronavirus case.
Ha Tae-keung, an opposition member of South Korea, told reporters that the intelligence agency “briefed us that North Korea tried to obtain technology involving the COVID vaccine and treatment by using cyberwarfare to hack into Pfizer,” Al Jazeera reported.
However, he did not reveal further details about when the hacking attempt was carried out.
The latest revelation comes after the North Korea allegedly attempted to hack into the systems of at least nine healthcare firms, including AstraZeneca.
NIS said that it also foiled a bid of North Korea hackers against Seoul’s companies working for developing coronavirus vaccines.
North Korea is often alleged that its hackers carried out attacks to mint mean since country is facing international sanctions over its nuclear programme.
Pfizer in cooperation with Germany’s BioNTech successfully developed the COVID-19 vaccine last year then it started getting approval from world countries.
In December, the pharmaceutical companies revealed that their documents related to their vaccine were “unlawfully accessed” during a cyberattack on a server at the European Medicines Agency (EMA), the EU’s medicine regulator.
Pyongyang has rejected claims of backing such cyberattacks.
