North Korean hackers tried to break into the computer systems of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer in search of information about a coronavirus vaccine and treatment technology, South Korea’s spy agency said on Tuesday, according to a South Korean lawmaker. Korean.
The impoverished North, with nuclear weapons, has been in self-imposed isolation since the closure of its borders in January last year to try to protect itself from the virus that first appeared in neighboring China and started to sweep the world, killing more than two million people.
Leader Kim Jong Un has repeatedly insisted that the country has had no cases of coronavirus, although outside experts doubt these claims.
And the closure has increased pressure on its wobbly economy with international sanctions imposed on its banned weapons systems, increasing Pyongyang’s urgency to find a way to deal with the disease.
The Seoul National Intelligence Service “informed us that North Korea tried to obtain technology involving Covid’s vaccine and treatment using cyberwar to invade Pfizer,” MP Ha Tae-keung told reporters after a closed-door hearing .
North Korea is known for operating 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 BioNTech in Germany, began receiving approval from authorities last year.
It is based on technology that uses the synthetic version of a molecule called “messenger RNA” to invade human cells and effectively turn them into vaccine factories.
Pfizer says it expects to potentially deliver up to 2 billion doses this year.
The company’s South Korean office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from AFP.