https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/10/us/politics/coronavirus-china-cyber-hacking.html
By David E. Sanger and Nicole Perlroth
NYTimes.com
May 10, 2020
WASHINGTON -- The F.B.I. and the Department of Homeland Security are
preparing to issue a warning that China’s most skilled hackers and spies
are working to steal American research in the crash effort to develop
vaccines and treatments for the coronavirus. The efforts are part of a
surge in cybertheft and attacks by nations seeking advantage in the
pandemic.
The warning comes as Israeli officials accuse Iran of mounting an effort in
late April to cripple water supplies as Israelis were confined to their houses,
though the government has offered no evidence to back its claim. More than a
dozen countries have redeployed military and intelligence hackers to glean
whatever they can about other nations’ virus responses. Even American allies
like South Korea and nations that do not typically stand out for their
cyberabilities, like Vietnam, have suddenly redirected their state-run hackers
to focus on virus-related information, according to private security firms.
A draft of the forthcoming public warning, which officials say is likely to be
issued in the days to come, says China is seeking “valuable intellectual
property and public health data through illicit means related to vaccines,
treatments and testing.” It focuses on cybertheft and action by “nontraditional
actors,” a euphemism for researchers and students the Trump administration says
are being activated to steal data from inside academic and private
laboratories.
[...]
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