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The complaint was made by the National Intelligence Center of Spain (CNI), after a US court accused China of trying to access confidential information through cyberattacks against 11 countries, including Spain.
The news advanced by The country, this Friday, accuses hackers Chinese authorities for alleged theft of information from Spanish centers working on the investigation of a vaccine against covid-19, according to sources linked to these cyber attacks.
The director of the CNI, Paz Esteban, told the newspaper that There have been attacks on computer systems in several countries trying to develop a vaccine. According to the official, secret services around the world try to cross information to guarantee the impermeability of systems and prevent these attacks, but not always with success.
The main objectives of hackers are, according to the CNI, the “sensitive sectors such as healthcare and pharmaceuticals”, and also “a campaign, especially virulent, not only in Spain, against laboratories working in search of a vaccine for covid-19”.
In addition, Paz Esteban pointed out that there was a “qualitative and quantitative” increase in these cyber attacks, especially during periods of confinement, and teleworking increased the “exposure area” of these threats “.
As for the alleged perpetrators of these attacks, The publication mentions that the majority are from China and Russia, and that they are often state entities, some universities and criminal organizations that commercialize the stolen information. Regarding the attack on Spanish research centers, it is known that theThe touch of the computer was of Chinese origin. However, the sources consulted by the Spanish newspaper did not reveal the importance or nature of the stolen information.
As early as July, the US Department of Justice indicted two hackers The Chinese Li Xiaoyu and Dong Jiazhi, for allegedly trying to steal information and investigate possible vaccines against the new coronavirus, developed by government agencies and private companies.
In recent months, according to the prosecution, these assumptions hackers “He investigated vulnerabilities in the computer networks of companies that develop vaccines, test technology and treatments” for the covid-19 disease. According to the prosecution, they worked for their own benefit, but also collaborated with the Chinese Ministry of State Security.
Among the target countries of these two hackers there are the United States, Australia, Belgium, Germany, Japan, Lithuania, the Netherlands, South Korea, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Spain.
Spanish research centers targeted by computer attacks
Researchers from the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC), which develop experimental vaccines against covid-19, were summoned in spring for a meeting in which They were warned to take precautions against attempts to illegally access confidential information. However, Those responsible for six of the Spanish groups that develop vaccine prototypes guarantee that there was no data theft or improper access to their computer systems.
A CSIC spokesperson assures that their centers – the National Center for Biotechnology and the Margarita Salas Center for Biological Research, both in Madrid – have not suffered any attack or theft.
Sources from the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona also affirm that they are unaware of the interference and intruders accessing the computers and computer systems where the results of an experimental vaccine based on the genetic material of the new coronavirus are stored. Neither the National Institute for Agricultural and Food Research and Technology (INIA) and the University of Santiago de Compostela, where José Manuel Martínez Costas’ team investigates an original approach, based on a bird virus strategy, indicate that they do not have information on no type. that have been the target of cyber attacks.
However, The CNI continues to affirm that Spanish research centers working to discover and develop a vaccine against covid-19 have been the target of computer attacks by hackers Chinese.
In Spain, there are at least a dozen projects to develop a potential cure for covid-19. The most advanced are the investigations coordinated by the virologist Mariano Esteban, from the National Center for Biotechnology of the CSIC, and by Dr. Felipe García, from the Hospital Clínic. But so far, none of these potential vaccines have yet entered the human testing phase.
