A Russian hacking group by the name of APT29, also known as 'The Dukes' or 'Cozy bear' , supposedly affiliated with the Russian Intelligence Agency, has been accused of hacking into vaccine research centres. 4 international agencies : The Canadian Communication Security Establishment (CSE), The United States Department for Homeland Security (DHS), The US National Security Agency (NSA), The UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), warned the International community of such events.
'Cozy Bear' in the past has carried out other breaches of foreign cyber security and has been at times linked directly to the Russian State. Although the Kremlin and the Russian ambassador to the UK denied such accusations, Western nations are still speculating the Russian intelligence agency's involvement.
Although, vaccine research and such information has become a top priority for Intelligence agencies all around the world, Russia has used its deal with AstraZeneca to prove that the state has no involvement in the hacking. AstraZeneca , along with Oxford had developed a Covid-19 shot 'AZD1222'. A Russian company 'R-Pharm' had partnered with them to commercialise the shot and distribute it to the Common Wealth of Independent States.
Russia used this deal to prove it had no requirement for gaining such knowledge through those means seen as though it had inked a deal with the very company that had developed one of the shots.
However many nations are sceptical regarding this and have warned researchers to be precautions as their work is a target for cyber criminals.