State-backed hackers from North Korea and Russia have been targeting organisations working on a coronavirus vaccine, Microsoft has said.

Axar.az informs that it said a Russian group nicknamed "Fancy Bear" and North Korean groups dubbed "Zinc" and "Cerium" were implicated in recent cyber-attacks.

The UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has previously said Russian hackers were targeting vaccine research.

But Russia denied it was responsible.

Microsoft, which develops cyber-security software, said it had detected attempts to break into the computer systems of seven pharmaceutical companies.

Vaccine researchers in Canada, France, India, South Korea, and the United States were also targeted.