Somebody's Russian to meddle with UK coronavirus vaccine efforts, but GCHQ won't take it lying down
- Reference: 1604937127
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/11/09/gchq_hacks_russia_vaccine_disinfo/
- Source link:
Citing government press officers anonymous sources, the newspaper reported this morning that the agency was "taking down hostile state-linked [propaganda] content and disrupting the operations of the cyberactors [sic] responsible for it."
The offensive cyber campaign is said to be using similar tools to those deployed against Islamic State [2]in 2018 to take its propaganda outlets offline.
Tactics deployed against the Russia-backed actors are said to include "encrypting" the operators' data, mildly suggestive of ransomware – albeit without the ransom.
Some weeks ago a Russian misinformation campaign was brought to light, [3]again by The Times , aiming to sow distrust of the safety and efficacy of a COVID-19 vaccine being developed by drug company AstraZeneca and Oxford University in the UK. The campaign reportedly claimed that because AZD1222 [4]uses a replication-deficient chimpanzee viral vector , it could "turn people into monkeys". Subtle.
Russia is instead promoting its own vaccine, Sputnik V, which has been lambasted by researchers for its " [5]questionable data " and sparked concern about its [6]fast tracking as well as its safety .
Publicly acknowledged use of offensive cyber capabilities (government-sponsored hacking) by the UK are rare. Two years ago GCHQ director Jeremy Fleming told the Cyber UK conference: "For well over a decade, starting in the conflict in Afghanistan, GCHQ has pioneered the development and use of offensive cyber techniques. And by that I mean taking action online that has direct real world impact."
A year after that, then-Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt gave a speech in Glasgow [7]confirming that Britain has a National Offensive Cyber Programme, which he described as being a "joint mission between GCHQ and the Ministry of Defence."
A GCHQ spokeswoman told The Register the agency would neither confirm nor deny the Times story.
The GCHQ attacks almost coincided with today's announcement by pharmaceutical company Pfizer that it may have a working vaccine for COVID-19, a finding that has flooded global news networks and sent the stock markets into a tizzy:
Equity markets rise sharply as Pfizer says vaccine found to be over 90% effective. FTSE 100 now up over 3% [8]pic.twitter.com/dVbC4uPbSb — Richard Fletcher (@fletcherr) [9]November 9, 2020
Meanwhile, the Russian Foreign Office [10]tweeted about the country's competing Sputnik vaccine, promising Twitter users "only latest and verified first-hand info."
Russia's London embassy issued a statement in October, when the nation's disinformation campaign first came to light, saying: "The suggestion that the Russian State may conduct any kind of propaganda against the AstraZeneca vaccine is itself an example of disinformation. It is obviously aimed at discrediting Russia's efforts in combating the pandemic, including the good cooperation we have established with the UK in this field."
Public statements from Russian officials should mostly be taken with a pinch of salt; they often accuse others of doing what they themselves are guilty of.
Conspiracy loons in the weirder corners of the internet have leapt on the hacking story as proof of everything from a government campaign to silence alternative, legitimate points of view through to 1970s TV presenters revealing culinary preferences that [11]include diminutive domestic mammals . Probably. ®
Get our [12]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/gchq-in-cyberwar-on-anti-vaccine-propaganda-mcjgjhmb2
[2] https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5867965/British-spies-hacked-computers-Syria-shut-Islamic-State-online-terror-manual.html
[3] https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/russians-spread-fake-news-over-oxford-coronavirus-vaccine-2nzpk8vrq
[4] https://www.astrazeneca.com/media-centre/press-releases/2020/statement-on-astrazeneca-oxford-sars-cov-2-vaccine-azd1222-covid-19-vaccine-trials-temporary-pause.html
[5] https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02619-4
[6] https://www.thestatesman.com/supplements/science_supplements/concerns-sputnik-v-1502918098.html
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2019/03/08/ukgov_rejects_closer_ncsc_ministerial_oversight/
[8] https://t.co/dVbC4uPbSb
[9] https://twitter.com/fletcherr/status/1325768213628596224?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[10] https://twitter.com/mfa_russia/status/1325726496774877185
[11] https://regmedia.co.uk/2015/07/17/freddie_starr_ate_my_hamster.jpg
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
it could "turn people into monkeys".
Given the activities of the last 5 years (15 if you include anti vaxers) I reckon it already has.
I reckon the news in North Korea look similar
I reckon that the "news" in North Korea look similar. Does that get you thinking?
Hint: GCHQ bots responding, just as in NK, but the weather is worse.
Say no more, Squire
[1] according to The Times.
Well, what else can one say and expect ...... it is one of Rupert's comics, is it not? Hardly a bastion of forthright rectitude to be following religiously with apparent unquestioning glee ....... although I'm sure there are those who are into supporting it fanatically.
One does have to ask ..... Why, if intelligence services are supposed to be so good at what they are supposed to be so very good at, and here we appears to be being told they are excelling at it with a commanding control of mis/dis/malinformation, is everything so very bad and maddening?
Nothing is changed. SNAFUBAR Rules the Roost .... and aint that the Gospel.
In anyones' language/lexicon is that an Epic Fail and yet here in the above tall tale is it being lauded. Strewth, whatever are they on? Can you get it with a doctor's prescription? What do you need to say you are chronically suffering from?
Conspiracy loons in the weirder corners of the internet have leapt on the hacking story as proof of everything from a government campaign to silence alternative,...
How are finding those corners, Gareth? Enjoyable/Exhilarating/Enriching/Exhausting/Evil? :-)
[1] https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/gchq-in-cyberwar-on-anti-vaccine-propaganda-mcjgjhmb2
Infantile
So effectively Russia is saying, "Your vaccine is rubbish!"
And the UK is responding, "Shut your mouth, it's your vaccine that's rubbish!"
Then both chant, "Nah na na nah nah - my daddy's bigger than your daddy so there!"
Not sure that's what our tax money should be paying our security services for.
Still confused about the 90%
Is this the same 90% who do not end up in hospital with sever reaction to covid or is it 90% of the remaining <10% who do end up in hospital?
I ask as those that do end up dying in hospital with covid are still classed the same as those that die because of covid.
It has been suggested that those that die of covid are the same group that die of flu each year, even with immunisation, so is the reported 90% of everyone in UK or just 90% of those that are also susceptable to flu?
Nothing to see here. Just GCHQ, Putin themselves about.