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The University of Washington immunology laboratories have been looking for antibodies to the coronavirus in their work to control the virus.
Hackers linked to China are targeting organizations investigating the Covid-19 pandemic, US officials say.
The FBI said it had seen piracy attempts by US groups investigating vaccines, treatments and tests.
The United States has long accused the Chinese government of cyber espionage, something Beijing denies.
The pandemic has worsened tensions between the two countries, which have accused each other of not containing the outbreak.
Covid-19 has infected more than 4.3 million people worldwide, with more than 83,000 deaths in the United States. USA And 4,600 deaths in China, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The Federal Office of Investigation and Cyber Security and the Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), a division of the department of national security, issued a rare joint warning on Wednesday.
In what was announced as a public service announcement, they said that “the healthcare, pharmaceutical and research sectors working on the Covid-19 response should be aware that they are prime targets” of the hackers.
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The cyber-thieves “had been observed attempting to illegally identify and obtain valuable public health and intellectual property data” by treating the coronavirus, the statement added.
China has repeatedly denied US allegations of cyber espionage.
Earlier this week, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said: “We are leading the world in the treatment of Covid-19 and the vaccine investigation. It is immoral to attack China with rumors and slander in the absence of evidence. “
At a press conference on Monday, President Donald Trump referred to China’s alleged cyber activities.
“What else is new with China? I’m not happy with China, I could have stopped it at the source, I should have,” he said.
“Now you’re telling me that they are hacking. What else is new? We are watching very closely.”
US officials have long accused China of piracy and theft of intellectual property.
In 2009, the United States alleged that hackers linked to China managed to infiltrate confidential data from the Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jet. Soon after, China announced that it was developing a similar aircraft, the Shenyang J-31.
Intelligence officials have also accused China in the past of using “non-traditional harvesters,” which steal technology from US companies.
Bill Evanina, director of the US National Center for Counterintelligence and Security. The US has said that the theft of intellectual property in the USA USA For China it amounts to about 400,000 million dollars a year.
The United Kingdom and the United States had already issued a detailed joint warning about other countries targeting the investigation on May 5.
On that occasion, they did not officially name the names, but sources indicated that China, Russia and Iran were among those responsible.
Now, in a widely followed move, the United States has decided to single out China specifically with this new announcement.
So far, the United Kingdom has not joined them and the new alert does not contain any new details of what happened.
This means that this may well be interpreted as a means both to perform before an internal public and to increase pressure on China as part of the growing tension between Washington and Beijing.
