News Insights: Russian hackers targeted Canadian COVID-19 vaccine research, intelligence agency says | CBC News

News Insights

Chris Hauk, consumer privacy champion with Pixel Privacy: “Coronavirus vaccine research has created an enticing new target for hackers of all types. The use of social engineering (spear phishing) as well as malware have proven over and over as the “go to” methods for hackers to infiltrate networks to steal data. The attacks underscore the need for research groups to educate their users about the risks presented by hackers and how to foil such attacks. It also puts emphasis on the need to keep computer systems up to date to patch security holes used by the bad actors.”

Paul Bischoff, privacy advocate with Comparitech: “It’s unfortunate that creating a vaccine has become a geopolitical competition rather than an opportunity for global cooperation. Surely a vaccine would have the greatest impact if shared with the whole world including Russia, whether they are friendly or not. So I’m not sure what incentive there is for Russia to steal research, unless it’s worried about the UK capitalizing on a vaccine and price gouging Russia for access to it.”