US says China trying to steal COVID-19 vaccine research
14 May, 2020
US authorities warned on Wednesday (Might 13) that Chinese hackers were wanting to steal coronavirus info on treatments and vaccines, adding fuel to Washington's war with Beijing more than the pandemic.
The FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said organisations researching COVID-19 were at risk of "targeting and network compromise by the People's Republic of China".
They warned that Chinese government-affiliated cyber actors and others were wanting to obtain "valuable intellectual property and public health data related to vaccines, treatments, and testing from networks and personnel affiliated with COVID-19-related research".
"China's efforts to focus on these sectors pose a substantial threat to our nations response to COVID-19," they said.
Both organisations gave no evidence or examples to aid the allegation.
But the warning put into the developing battle between your superpowers over the outbreak that commenced in China and has killed at least 293,000 worldwide, and more than 83,000 in the United States.
President Donald Trump features accused China of hiding the origins of the virus and not cooperating with the United States and other countries in efforts to analyze and fight the condition.
Asked on Monday about reports that the united states believed Chinese hackers were targeting US vaccine research, Trump replied: "What otherwise is fresh with China? What else can be fresh? Tell me. I'm unhappy with China."
SPIES, ACADEMICS TARGETED
The warning on Wednesday also underscored that Washington believes China has continued broad efforts to obtain US commercial and technology secrets at all possible, under President Xi Jinping's drive to create his country a technological leader this decade.
In February, the united states Justice Department indicted four Chinese army personnel suspected of hacking the massive database of credit rating agency Equifax, providing them with the personal data of 145 million Americans.
THE UNITED STATES recently also charged several academics with crimes associated with that alleged effort, both American and Chinese nationals.
On Monday, the Department of Justice announced the arrest of University of Arkansas engineering professor Simon Ang Saw-Teong for hiding ties to the Chinese government and Chinese universities while he worked on projects funded by NASA.
The indictment said Ang was secretly section of the Xi-backed Thousand Talents programme, which Washington says China uses to acquire research from abroad.
Also in Monday Li Xiaojiang, a former professor at Emory University in Atlanta, admitted tax fraud in a case centered on his concealed earnings from China, also just as a participant in the Thousand Talents program.
RACE FOR A VACCINE
Beijing has repeatedly denied the united states accusations.
"We will be leading the globe in COVID-19 treatment and vaccine exploration. It is immoral to target China with rumors and slanders in the lack of any evidence," Foreign Affairs ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian stated on Monday.
The FBI warning comes as a large number of companies, institutes and countries all over the world are racing to build up vaccines to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Many more groups are researching treatments for infected patients. Presently there is absolutely no proven therapy.
A highly effective vaccine could allow countries to totally reopen and potentially earn huge amount of money for its creators.
Many expert believe it will require greater than a year to acquire a vaccine fully approved, and far longer to produce more than enough of it for a good fraction of the persons on the globe.
The warning about Chinese hackers added to a series of alerts and reports accusing government-backed cyber operators in Iran, North Korea, Russia and China of malicious activity related to the coronavirus pandemic, from pumping out false news to targeting staff and scientists.
Britain's National Cyber Security Centre and CISA said jointly last week that they had detected large-scale "password spraying" tactics - hackers trying to access accounts through commonly used passwords - targeted at health care bodies and medical study organisations.
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