LONDON (UK) – Oxford University said on Thursday it was monitoring a digital intrusion after a researcher said he saw evidence that a laboratory conducting research on COVID-19 had been hacked.
The breach happened in mid-February and occurred at the Division of Structural Biology, known as Strubi, which has been conducting research into COVID-19, according to Alex Holden, founder of Wisconsin-based Hold Security.
Strubi is different from the Jenner Institute, which develops the Oxford COVID-19 vaccine in partnership with AstraZeneca.
Oxford University confirmed there had been a hack and in an emailed statement it said it was looking into it.
An Oxford spokesman said, adding that the university was closely working with the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) on the incident, “We have identified and contained the problem and are now investigating further. There has been no impact on any clinical research, as this is not conducted in the affected area.”
It did not, however, disclose the facility, which was affected.
NCSC, the cybersecurity arm of spy agency GCHQ, said in a statement that it was aware of the incident and was “working to fully understand its impact.”
Holden told that he found out about the intrusion when he came across screenshots from inside the lab’s network. The hackers had left the same, on a poorly secured server.
Holden said the hackers, which his company has been attempting to track, were Portuguese speakers functioned out of South America and were driven criminally. He made references to ransomware and discussions of monetary payouts.
Digital espionage has been targetting health bodies, vaccine scientists and drugmakers, which has surged during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In December, US drugmaker Pfizer Inc and its German partner BioNTech SE revealed that documents related to development of their COVID-19 vaccine had been “unlawfully accessed” in a cyberattack on Europe’s medicines regulator.