China is resorting to all the dirty tricks in the book in the aftermath of the spread of the Coronavirus pandemic. After initially projecting itself and as the global messiah by delivering substandard medical equipment to the countries around the world—the dragon is now trying to rip off the COVID-2019 vaccine data through cyber theft, which is being dubbed as China’s proxy war against the US and its healthcare professionals.
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of Homeland Security, and Cyber Security experts have said that Chinese hackers are trying to steal research on developing a vaccine against coronavirus. A draft of the forthcoming public warning, which officials say is likely to be issued in the days to come, says China is seeking “valuable intellectual property and public health data through illicit means related to vaccines, treatments, and testing.”, a national US daily reported.
The reports have stated that China is employing the ‘non-traditional actors’ to steal the data. ‘Non-traditional actors’ is a term used by Donald Trump administration as a euphemism for the Chinese researchers and students living in America whilst working for CCP’s sinister motives.
Through “non-traditional actors”. Chinese theft of the US trade secrets costs America $300 to 600 billion each year, according to national counterintelligence and security center.
The authorities are looking to sound the bugle by warning the premier medical research centers, university departments, hospitals, and everyone involved in finding a cure to the deadly virus. Although, it is being feared that many of China’s research thieves are already at work, operating in close proximity to the database on American soil. However, China’s Foreign Affairs ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian refuted the allegations, saying China firmly opposes all cyber-attacks
Earlier reported by TFI, China and its rather unceremonious ways to wreck a country includes the extensive use of non-traditional actors. In a related report, Senator Tom Cotton had suggested that Chinese students be denied+ visa to study science in the country in the light of Beijing’s attempts of intellectual property theft.
“It’s a scandal to me that we have trained so many of the Chinese Communist Party’s brightest minds to go back to China, to compete for our jobs, to take our business and ultimately to steal our property and design weapons and other devices that can be used against the American people.” the senator had remarked.
China has been accused of trying to steal military technology and there have been several instances where some highly-sought after the technology is stolen by the Chinese spies masquerading as US expatriate population.
A Chinese Professor who taught at the University of Texas was charged with stealing state of the art technology from a Silicon Valley firm. He had turned out to be a secret agent for Chinese tech major Huawei, which is blacklisted in the United States over security concerns.
Britain’s National Cyber Security Center and the US Cyber Security and Infrastructure Security Agency said they had detected large-scale “password spraying” tactics – hackers trying to access accounts through commonly used passwords – aimed at healthcare bodies and medical research organizations. China has a rather bad rap-sheet when it comes to cyberspace. It has been time and again accused of engaging in cyber-theft.
Coronavirus has put a major dent on China’s reputation across the globe and therefore it is going all out to thwart any evidence that links its name with the spread of Coronavirus. After the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo stated that ‘enormous evidence’ proves that the Coronavirus originated from the Virology lab in Wuhan—the Chinese hackers have upped their cyberwarfare attacks on the US healthcare system.
Other countries like India should be wary of China too. Being one of the biggest pharmaceutical research hotspots, China might have its eyes set on stealing such sensitive data.
