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Hackers linked to Iran target staff at US coronavirus drugmaker Gilead Sciences Inc

May 12, 2020 9:00 am By Robert Spencer

Yet despite this, the Iranian mullahs, with help from the international media, will continue to claim the moral high ground. That is nothing new, and neither is Iran’s aggression. As The Complete Infidel’s Guide to Iran shows, the Islamic Republic of Iran has been on a war footing against the U.S. since 1979.

“Iran-linked hackers recently targeted US coronavirus drugmaker, say sources,” by Jack Stubbs and Christopher Bing, Reuters, May 9, 2020:

LONDON/WASHINGTON: Hackers linked to Iran have targeted staff at US drugmaker Gilead Sciences Inc in recent weeks, according to publicly-available web archives reviewed by Reuters and three cybersecurity researchers, as the company races to deploy a treatment for the Covid-19 virus.

In one case, a fake email login page designed to steal passwords was sent in April to a top Gilead executive involved in legal and corporate affairs, according to an archived version on a website used to scan for malicious web addresses. Reuters was not able to determine whether the attack was successful.

Ohad Zaidenberg, lead intelligence researcher at Israeli cybersecurity firm ClearSky, who closely tracks Iranian hacking activity and has investigated the attacks, said the attempt was part of an effort by an Iranian group to compromise email accounts of staff at the company using messages that impersonated journalists.

Two other cybersecurity researchers, who were not authorised to speak publicly about their analysis, confirmed that the web domains and hosting servers used in the hacking attempts were linked to Iran.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations denied any involvement in the attacks. “The Iranian government does not engage in cyber warfare,” said spokesman Alireza Miryousefi. “Cyber activities Iran engages in are purely defensive and to protect against further attacks on Iranian infrastructure.”…

Reuters has reported in recent weeks that hackers with links to Iran and other groups have also attempted to break into the World Health Organisation, and that attackers linked to Vietnam targeted the Chinese government over its handling of the coronavirus outbreak.

Britain and the United States warned this week that state-backed hackers are attacking pharmaceutical companies and research institutions working on treatments for the new disease.

The joint statement did not name any of the attacked organisations, but two people familiar with the matter said one of the targets was Gilead, whose antiviral drug remdesivir is the only treatment so far proven to help patients infected with Covid-19.

The hacking infrastructure used in the attempt to compromise the Gilead executive’s email account has previously been used in cyberattacks by a group of suspected Iranian hackers known as “Charming Kitten”, said Priscilla Moriuchi, director of strategic threat development at US cybersecurity firm Recorded Future, who reviewed the web archives identified by Reuters….

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Filed Under: Internet jihad, Iran, United States Tagged With: ClearSky, coronavirus, Gilead Sciences Inc, Ohad Zaidenberg


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Comments

  1. mortimer says

    May 12, 2020 at 9:07 am

    The hymn says, ‘There is a balm in Gilead to make the sinner whole’. Iran’s mullah-sinners did not get the memo. They continue their rapacious reign of terror and the helpless Iranians have not figured a way to lose themselves from their chains. When they do, the mullahs will swing from the lampposts. Iran is becoming a powder keg for civil war and counter-revolution.

  2. mortimer says

    May 12, 2020 at 9:09 am

    Imagine the mullahs are so sick that they are trying STOP the production of an anti-viral medication!

    The heartless mullahs want us to be sick and die. But then, their own people will die too. They don’t care.

    • Keys says

      May 13, 2020 at 12:07 pm

      Death is the glory of Allah. God is love, but Allah is death. Muslims do love death, as does their “beloved” Allah.

      The greatest deceiver of all deceivers has eternal death, not 72 houris, as a surprise for all who hope in him.

  3. Ray Jarman says

    May 12, 2020 at 12:47 pm

    I am curious if Gilead protects its research by using a separate encapsulated network that is encrypted with high end encryption devices. Were I the CEO of Gilead or any other company who wanted to ensure that their research was kept secure, I would certainly not permit any of the in house correspondence to be accessed from outside by not having connectivity to anyone from outside of the laboratories and employees would have two separate internet accounts, one encrypted and one open but with a strong firewall. I also don’t understand why the US power grids have internet connectivity to the world. It should not even have a physical connection.

    • b.a. freeman says

      May 12, 2020 at 2:37 pm

      “I … don’t understand why the US power grids have internet connectivity to the world. It should not even have a physical connection.”
      —
      it’s because the management wants easy access to control equipment, Ray. unfortunately, they have become enamored of the IIoT (Industrial IoT), the latest in buzzwords which they don’t understand, so they rush in with little, if any, consideration of security.

      often, the equipment in question is quite old and has no internet connectivity, because the internet didn’t exist when it was installed. when run-of-the-mill equipment costs hundreds of thousands of dollars and is designed to last for many decades, and its maintenance costs are a tiny fraction of its cost of replacement, slapping a raspberry pi on an ancient PLC seems like the answer to everything … but it’s not, especially if U ignore security. and since security for something as vital as power or water can be expensive, management usually doesn’t want to spend enough on it.

      check out https://www.shodan.io/, which is kind of the google of the IIoT. there’s an API that U can use to find, say, every internet-connected water heater of the brand of your choice. there are a lot of other criteria, of course, and although designed by and for the Good Guys, Black Hats can use it, too. *DO NOT* connect your light bulbs, your cameras, et al., to the internet, because the Black Hats *will* find them!

      • Ray Jarman says

        May 13, 2020 at 2:40 am

        B. A.,

        Thanks for the information and believe me, I am not too lazy to turn my own appliances on nor do I leave the camera connected when not used and I never use the features on a smart television that allows one to be watched while watching a program or turned off. Regarding the internet connectivity to the power grid, equipment such as the KG-34 or KG-81 is not that expensive and some more complex cryptographic equipment’s variable starting code can be changed daily remotely.

  4. gravenimage says

    May 12, 2020 at 8:13 pm

    Hackers linked to Iran target staff at US coronavirus drugmaker Gilead Sciences Inc
    …………………

    These Muslim thugs want to prevent treatment, vaccines, or cures for the Coronavirus. As always, Muslims do indeed love death.

  5. Lisa Bernstein says

    May 13, 2020 at 1:40 pm

    I would think of this as an act of war. So if its war that they want…..

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