Hackers backed by Govt targeting COVID-19 research data: US, UK rings bell of warning
By MYBRANDBOOK
Britain and the United States issued a joint warning that government-backed hackers are attempting to break into healthcare and research institutions involved in the global response to the new coronavirus outbreak.
In a statement, Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said the hackers had targeted pharmaceutical companies, research organisations and local governments.
The NCSC and CISA though did not mention which countries were responsible for the attacks. But one U.S. official and one UK official said the warning was in response to intrusion attempts by suspected Chinese and Iranian hackers, as well as some Russian-linked activity.
Tehran, Beijing and Moscow have all repeatedly denied conducting offensive cyber operations and say they are the victims of such attacks themselves.
State hacking groups “frequently target organisations in order to collect bulk personal information, intellectual property and intelligence that aligns with national priorities,” the NCSC and CISA said.
“For example, actors may seek to obtain intelligence on national and international healthcare policy or acquire sensitive data on COVID-19 related research.”
The warning follows efforts by a host of state-backed hackers to compromise governments, businesses and health agencies in search of information about the new disease and attempts to combat it.
The officials said the alert was not triggered by any specific incident or compromise, but rather intended as a warning - both to the attackers and the targeted organisations that need to better defend themselves.
“These are organisations that wouldn’t normally see themselves as nation state targets, and they need to understand that now they are,” said one of the officials.
The agencies said hackers had been seen trying to identify and exploit security weaknesses caused by staff working from home as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.
Singapore to remove One-Time Passwords from Bank Accounts
According to the Monetary Authority of Singapore, clients who utilise secur...
Is 375 million Airtel subscribers database breached?
When a hacker claims to have accessed and put up for sale a customer databa...
The government of India intends to construct a single portal f
A single portal will be launched by the Indian government to list all of it...
OpenAI offers GPT-4o, a faster model available to all users at
GPT-4o, a faster and more sophisticated AI model, is made available to all...
Icons Of India : NANDAN NILEKANI
Nandan Nilekani is the Co-Founder and Chairman of Infosys Technologies...
ICONS OF INDIA : RAMESH NATRAJAN
Ramesh Natarajan, CEO of Redington Limited, on overcoming ‘technolog...
Icons Of India : ALOK OHRIE
Alok Ohrie leads Dell Technologies’ India business, overseeing Sales...
CSC - Common Service Centres
CSC initiative in India is a strategic cornerstone of the Digital Indi...
DRDO - Defence Research and Development Organisation
DRDO responsible for the development of technology for use by the mili...
GeM - Government e Marketplace
GeM is to facilitate the procurement of goods and services by various ...
Indian Tech Talent Excelling The Tech World - PADMASREE WARRIOR, Founder, President & CEO - Fable
Padmasree Warrior, the Founder, President, and CEO of Fable, is revolu...
Indian Tech Talent Excelling The Tech World - Steve Sanghi, Executive Chair, Microchip
Steve Sanghi, the Executive Chair of Microchip Technology, has been a ...
Indian Tech Talent Excelling The Tech World - Thomas Kurian, CEO- Google Cloud
Thomas Kurian, the CEO of Google Cloud, has been instrumental in expan...