- North Korea wants to “decide which [vaccine] it will be the easiest to smuggle and transport to the black market, “said one official.
- The country has a long history of counterfeiting, smuggling, drug trafficking and arms smuggling.
- The dictatorship wants foreign currency. Your national currency is almost worthless.
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North Korean hackers tried to breach the servers of the American vaccine maker Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, in the hope of collecting scientific data that could be used to make pirated copies of a COVID-19 vaccine to sell on international black markets, according to intelligence officials in Europe.
North Korea’s intention was likely to raise funds in foreign currency. The domestic currency of the hermit dictatorship has almost no value outside its borders.
Two European security officials informed of cyber operations told Insider that the intrusion attempt was probably an official North Korean operation to collect scientific data on Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, one of only three vaccines so far approved for emergency use. by the World Health Organization. Both officials said the attempt was linked to the November announcement of several hacker hacks via Microsoft’s network infrastructure.
“It was clearly an attempt to gather information, rather than an
malware
– or rescue type attack. I will not go into technical details, but we have developed a lot of experience with each type of attack “, said a European official, who declined to be identified due to the extreme sensitivity of the situation.
“North Korea will have physical access to Pfizer vaccines long after seeing the Chinese or Russian versions. But they want to decide which one will be the easiest to smuggle and transport to the black market,” said the official, noting that both Russia and China promised millions of doses to North Korea free of charge, despite the country’s claim that it never had a case of COVID.
“So they wanted to take a look to see if the Pfizer vaccine would be a viable copy dose,” added the official. “We are not giving any information on whether the hacking attempt was successful, but if it were, I suspect that the Pfizer vaccine would cause many manufacturing and storage problems compared to Russian or Chinese vaccines.” The Pfizer vaccine requires two types of refrigeration; the AstraZeneca version requires only a normal refrigerator.
Asked whether North Korea was trying to sell some type of contraband, the source said without question, considering North Korea’s long history of counterfeiting, smuggling, drug trafficking and arms smuggling through its embassies around the world.
Hacking alone provides large amounts of income for the regime, according to accusations last week by US officials against a group of North Korean hackers linked to the state accused of stealing $ 1.3 billion from various targets.
For decades, North Korea has been accused of using its embassies as lucrative outposts for organized crime, from counterfeiting U.S. currency, trading meth around the world through secure diplomatic pouches, to selling weapons. for dishonest regimes in violation of embargoes.
In 2007, Israeli warplanes bombed a secret nuclear reactor that was being built in Syria with the help of North Korean engineers, who have long been secretly assisting Middle Eastern regimes in exchange for hard currency.
“North Koreans have been essential to Israel’s enemies since the 1970s, first helping the PLO to build huge fortifications and bunkers in all fields in Lebanon and the Beqaa Valley,” said a former Israeli official. “And today we have strong evidence – indeed, no doubt – that for decades they have been working with Hezbollah and Iran to strengthen their positions, not only in Lebanon, but also in Iran.”
When asked why North Korea was the resource of choice, the source was straightforward.
“They are great engineers with a national mining history,” they said. “The Arabs don’t really have hundreds of years of coal mining to get the experience like them. And they can work anywhere and there will be no doubt if there will be an accident or if the place will be bombed by [Israeli Air Force]. “