North Korean hackers tried to break into the computer systems of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer in a search for information on the coronavirus vaccine and treatment technology, South Korea’s spy agency said on Tuesday. , according to a South Korean lawmaker.
The impoverished North with nuclear weapons has been isolated by itself since the closure of its borders in January last year to try to protect itself from the virus that emerged in neighboring China and devastated the world and killed more of two million people.
Leader Kim Jong Un has repeatedly insisted that the country has not had cases of coronavirus, although outside experts doubt these claims.
And the closure has added to pressure on its faltering economy over international sanctions imposed by its banned weapons systems, which increases the urgency for Pyongyang to find a way to deal with the disease.
The Seoul National Intelligence Service “informed us that North Korea was trying to obtain technology involving vaccine and Covid treatment by using cyber warfare to attack Pfizer,” the member of the Parliament, Ha Tae-keung, after a closed-door hearing.
North Korea is known to operate an army of thousands of well-trained hackers who have attacked companies, institutions and researchers in the South and elsewhere.
Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine, developed in conjunction with German BioNTech, began gaining approval from authorities late last year.
It is based on a technology that uses the synthetic version of a molecule called “messenger RNA” to hack human cells and effectively turn them into vaccine factories.
Pfizer says it expects to deliver up to 2 billion doses this year.
The company’s South Korean office did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment.