WASHINGTON (NYTIMES) - Chinese intelligence hackers were intent on stealing coronavirus vaccine data, so they looked for what they believed would be an easy target. Instead of simply going after pharmaceutical companies, they conducted digital reconnaissance on the University of North Carolina and other schools doing cutting-edge research.. Read more at straitstimes.com.
WASHINGTON - Chinese intelligence hackers were intent on stealing coronavirus vaccine data, so they looked for what they believed would be an easy target. Instead of simply going after pharmaceutical companies, they conducted digital reconnaissance on the University of North Carolina and other schools doing cutting-edge research.
The coronavirus pandemic has prompted one of the fastest peacetime mission shifts in recent times for the world's intelligence agencies, pitting them against one another in a new grand game of spy versus spy, according to interviews with current and former intelligence officials and others tracking the espionage efforts.
"It would be surprising if they were not trying to steal the most valuable biomedical research going on right now," John C. Demers, a top Justice Department official, said of China last month during an event held by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.China's push is complex.
Besides the University of North Carolina, Chinese hackers have also targeted other universities around the country and some may have had their networks breached, American officials said. She directed further questions to the federal government, but said the school had invested in"around-the-clock monitoring" to"help guard against advanced persistent threat attacks from state sponsored organisations."
So far, officials believe that foreign spies have taken little information from the American biotech companies they targeted: Gilead Sciences, Novavax and Moderna. Homeland security officials have warned pharmaceutical companies and universities about the attacks and helped institutions review their security. For the most part, officials have observed the would-be vaccine hackers using known vulnerabilities that have yet to be patched, not the more exquisite cyberweapons that target unknown gaps in computer security.
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