The United Kingdom’s National Cyber Security Centre has accused Russian spies of trying to steal COVID-19 vaccine being developed in laboratories in Oxford and America.

According to the British Broadcasting Corporation, security services have warned that Russian spies were targeting organisations trying to develop coronavirus vaccine in the UK, US and Canada,

The UK’s NCSC said the hackers “almost certainly” operated as “part of Russian intelligence services.”

The UK, US and Canadian agencies said the hackers had exploited software flaws to get access to vulnerable computer systems and had used malware called WellMess and WellMail to upload and download files from infected machines.

They were also said to have tricked individuals into handing over login credentials with spear-phishing attacks.