Corona politics: FBI & cybersecurity experts,USA alleges China of hacking vaccine researches
WASHINGTON: According to the latest updates from the United States, a report published in two newspapers says that the cybersecurity experts and the researchers of The US Federal Bureau of Investigation have claimed that the Chinese hackers have been trying to steal research on developing a vaccine against coronavirus.
As the government research institutions along with the private firms are making best efforts to develop a vaccine to combat COVID-19 as soon as possible, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security are planning to release a warning about the Chinese hacking which could pose a problem for other nations.
Meanwhile, the hackers are also targeting information and intellectual property on treatments and testing for COVID-19. According to the reports published in The Wall Street Journal & The New York Times, the US officials have alleged that the hackers are linked to the Chinese government
The official warning from the government is expected to be released soon.
The Foreign Ministry spokesperson of China, Zhao Lijian rejected the allegation and said that China firmly opposes all cyber attacks.
In a statement, Zhao said, “We are leading the world in COVID-19 treatment and vaccine research. It is immoral to target China with rumors and slanders in the absence of any evidence.”
However, the US President Donald Trump has not mentioned anything clearly but replied on asked about it saying, “What else is new with China? What else is new? Tell me. I’m not happy with China.” We’re watching it very closely,” he added.
The current US warning adds to the series of alerts and reports that have accused government-backed hackers in Iran, North Korea, Russia and China of malicious activity related to the pandemic, from pumping out false news to targeting workers and scientists.
The New York Times called it to be a prelude to officially-sanctioned counterattacks by US agencies involved in cyber warfare, including the Pentagon’s Cyber Command and the National Security Agency.
Earlier, last week, Britain & US cautioned about a surge in cyber attacks against health professionals involved in the coronavirus response by organised criminals.
The National Cyber Security Centre of Britain & the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said that they had detected large-scale “password spraying” tactics which implied that hackers were trying to access accounts through commonly used passwords, aimed at healthcare bodies and medical research organisations.