Russiagate Meets COVID: UK Spooks Claim ‘Cozy Bear’ Tried to Hack the Coronavirus Vaccine

Given the abject folly which is the government-media complex, it was only a matter of time before this story emerged.

Following the demise of the RussiaGate narrative in the U.S. and the exposure of the secret government-run propaganda operation known as the Integrity Initiative in the UK, the Five Eyes intelligence cartel have been looking for a new story in which to re-engage the public with the concept of the ubiquitous Russian menace. Why not simply blend it with the government’s coronavirus vaccine public relations push?

Regardless of how discredited some of these broader ‘Russia!’ themes are, what this story demonstrates is that the Integrity Initiative is still operational, and that outrageous Russian fantasy fiction will continue to be being planted in press.

As usual, no specifics are given, only that it is said to have happened the way the security services are claiming it did, and that it’s “almost certainly” the Russians, and that said hackers must be “part of Russian intelligence services.”

The implications of the story are obvious: that Moscow is somehow trying to sabotage the US, UK and Canada’s experimental coronavirus vaccine, and thus plunge the West into further COVID chaos.

Any readers with an attention span longer than 5 seconds will be rewarded by the real kicker which is only a few sentences in: “It did not specify which organisations had been targeted, or whether any information had been stolen.”

But here is where it gets comical:

“Usually the security services are much more hedgy in their language if they think there is any doubt.

“Cozy Bear [the named group] has been implicated in past cyber-attacks and has left quite a trail, and there are fairly good links to the Russian state itself.”

As with most mainstream media propaganda pieces, this story contradicts itself. If you read a little bit further, it actually refutes its own bombastic headline by admitting that it’s probably not the the Russians after all:

But one cyber-security expert said the Russians were unlikely to be the only ones involved in such a campaign.

“They have lots of people, we have lots of people, the Americans have even more people, as do the Chinese,” commented Prof Ross Anderson from the University of Cambridge’s Computer Laboratory.

“They are all trying to steal this kind of stuff all the time.”

It should also be pointed out that 21WIRE debunked the false narrative that Russia hacked the 2016 Trump-Clinton election.

So in summation:

• They’re ‘almost certain’ the Russians are at it again
• It’s probably the Russians, probably “Cozy Bear”
• Not sure which organisations were targeted
• Not sure which information was stolen
• But then again, it might not be the Russians

Normally, a story like this would get laughed off the headlines, but i seems that ‘anything goes’ in the current hysterical ‘global pandemic’ political environment…

BBC claims that…

Russian spies are targeting organisations trying to develop a coronavirus vaccine in the UK, US and Canada, security services have warned.

The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) said the hackers “almost certainly” operated as “part of Russian intelligence services”.

It did not specify which organisations had been targeted, or whether any information had been stolen.

But it said vaccine research had not been hindered by the hackers.

Russia has denied responsibility.

“We do not have information about who may have hacked into pharmaceutical companies and research centres in Great Britain. We can say one thing – Russia has nothing at all to do with these attempts,” said Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for President Putin, according to the Tass news agency.

The warning was published by an international group of security services:

• the UK’s NCSC
• the Canadian Communication Security Establishment (CSE)
• the United States Department for Homeland Security (DHS) Cyber-security Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)
• the US National Security Agency (NSA)

One expert said it was “plausible” that, despite the Kremlin’s denials, Russian spies were involved.

“The received wisdom is that in cyber-space, attribution is difficult but not impossible,” commented Emily Taylor from the Chatham House think tank.

“Usually the security services are much more hedgy in their language if they think there is any doubt.

“Cozy Bear [the named group] has been implicated in past cyber-attacks and has left quite a trail, and there are fairly good links to the Russian state itself.”

See the original story at BBC

READ MORE COVID-19 NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire COVID Files

SUPPORT OUR INDEPENDENT MEDIA PLATFORM – BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV

21st Century Wire is an alternative news agency designed to enlighten, inform and educate readers about world events which are not always covered in the mainstream media.