A senior cybersecurity official with the Federal Bureau of
Investigation said on Thursday that foreign government hackers have broken into
companies conducting research into treatments for COVID-19, the respiratory
illness caused by the coronavirus.
FBI Deputy
Assistant Director Tonya Ugoretz told participants in an online panel
discussion hosted by the Aspen Institute that the bureau had recently seen
state-backed hackers poking around a series of healthcare and research
institutions.
“We
certainly have seen reconnaissance activity, and some intrusions, into some of
those institutions, especially those that have publicly identified themselves
as working on COVID-related research,” she said.
Ugoretz said
it made sense for institutions working on promising treatments or a potential
vaccine to tout their work publicly. However, she said, “The sad flipside is
that it kind of makes them a mark for other nation-states that are interested
in gleaning details about what exactly they’re doing and maybe even stealing
proprietary information that those institutions have.”
Ugoretz said
that state-backed hackers had often targeted biopharmaceutical industry but
said “it’s certainly heightened during this crisis.” She did not name specific
countries or identify targeted organizations.
“Medical research organizations and those who
work for them should be vigilant against threat actors seeking to steal
intellectual property or other sensitive data related to America’s response to
the COVID19 pandemic,” said Bill Evanina, Director of the National
Counterintelligence and Security Center. “Now is the time to protect the
critical research you’re conducting.”
The FBI
declined to comment. A spokeswoman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence
had no immediate comment. - Reuters
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