The UK and US have warned that state-backed cyber attackers are trying to steal data from universities, pharmaceuticals and research institutes involved in the coronavirus response, reports Sky News. Organisations trying to develop a COVID-19 vaccine are among those being targeted.
A joint advisory did not name any specific country involved in the "malicious cyber campaigns", but culprits are understood to include hacking groups from China, Russia and Iran, as well as others. The report says the UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), a branch of GCHQ, and its US counterpart, the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), urged workers in healthcare and medical research to change easy-to-guess passwords.
The significant rise in cyber-attacks on research institutes and universities is thought to be in line with a shift in priorities of national governments in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Suddenly, access to information held by a rival nation's laboratories is of top importance.
The warning followed a joint advisory from the NCSC and CISA last month about cyber criminals exploiting the coronavirus outbreak for their own personal gain. They warned that the frequency of coronavirus-related cyber-attacks will increase over the coming weeks and months.
[link url="https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-rival-states-targeted-uk-and-us-coronavirus-labs-with-malicious-cyber-campaigns-11983517"]Full Sky News report[/link]