US Accuses China Of Trying To Hack Information About COVID-19 Vaccine

The Trump administration is accusing the Chinese government of attempting to hack and steal information for the development of a COVID-19 vaccine.

On Wednesday, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the FBI said that Chinese hackers, backed by the Chinese governments, are targeting researchers of the US in attempts to seek information about COVID-19 vaccines. According to the agencies, besides treatments, these hackers are looking to hack information related to COVID-19 tests too. It’s said in the joint warning:

“These actors have been observed attempting to identify and illicitly obtain valuable intellectual property (IP) and public health data related to vaccines, treatments, and testing from networks and personnel affiliated with COVID-19-related research.”

The agencies said that they would release further technical details relating to these hacking attempts.

The warning also recommended researchers to patch their systems to fix major vulnerability and accounts should require multifactor authentication. Also, companies should acknowledge that the more press attention they get, the higher risk of being attacked they face.

The Chinese embassy did not respond to a comment request.

On Thursday, State Secretary Mike Pompeo, in a statement, also accused the Chinese government of the attempted attacks. He said:

“The PRC's behavior in cyberspace is an extension of its counterproductive actions throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Since COVID-19 broke out, cyberattacks have increased, targeting people with the fear of the pandemic. There have been government-sponsored hackers using cyberattacks to hack information from other countries. Previously, it was found that Vietnamese government-backed hackers were targeting the Chinese government to obtain information about how the country had been handling the COVID-19 pandemic.

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