The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and cyber security experts have accused Chinese hackers of attempting to steal research on developing a vaccine to cure the Covid-19 disease caused by the coronavirus.
FBI and Department of Homeland Security have scheduled to release a warning about the alleged Chinese hacking as governments and private firms are burning midnight oil to develop a vaccine for COVID-19.
The Wallstreet reported that the hackers are also targeting information and intellectual property on treatments and testing for COVID-19.
But Chinese Foreign Affairs ministry’s spokesman Zhao Lijian refuted the allegations linking the hackers to Chinese government saying that China is strongly opposing all sorts of cyber attacks.
“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,” Zhao said.
This comes amid other media reports about that President Donald Trump did not confirm them, but said that nothing is new with China and he is never happy with China but watching it very closely.
Trump’s warning is adding to a series of alerts and reports accusing government-backed hackers in Iran, North Korea, Russia and China of malicious activities around covid-19 pandemic, ranging from spreading fakes to targeting scientists and workers.
The New York Times reported that this could be prelude to officially-sanctioned counterattacks by US agencies involved in cyber warfare, including the Pentagon’s Cyber Command and the National Security
In a joint statement last week Britain and the United States warned of increased cyber attacks against health professionals responding to the coronavirus pandemic by organised criminals backed by governments to hack vaccine-research.
