US, WASHINGTON (ORDO NEWS) — The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency under the US Department of Homeland Security have said that China is behind cyber attacks on U.S. institutions involved in coronavirus research, particularly vaccine development. The joint statement was published on Wednesday at the FBI website.
“The FBI is investigating attacks by people related to China <…> [in order to gain] unauthorized access to [materials] of US organizations carrying out scientific research in the field of COVID-19,” the document says. It is noted that hackers tried to steal data regarding the coronavirus vaccine, its diagnosis and treatment. No further details on cyber attacks are provided.
Earlier Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed officials, wrote that the United States administration might see aggression as an attack by hackers on pharmaceutical companies and universities that are working to create a coronavirus vaccine.
The administration of US President Donald Trump has repeatedly made allegations of China’s involvement in the violation of intellectual property rights of American companies. Trump said earlier this month that American experts are hoping to create a coronavirus vaccine by the end of the year.
An outbreak caused by a coronavirus disease was recorded at the end of 2019 in Central China and subsequently spread to most countries. The World Health Organization has recognized it as a pandemic. According to Johns Hopkins University, more than 4.2 million people have been infected with the world coronavirus since the pandemic, over 290,000 have died.
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