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Intellectual property war: Hackers try to steal Covid vaccine secrets

WION Web Team
NEW DELHIUpdated: Nov 23, 2020, 03:18 PM IST
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Representative image. Photograph:(Zee News Network)

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Calling it an intellectual property war security experts said that hackers are trying to obtain trial results early and seize sensitive information about mass production of drugs.

In a bid to steal valuable data related to Coronavirus vaccine research, government-linked hackers China, Russia, Iran and North Korea are engaged in concerted attempts to steal coronavirus vaccine secrets.

Calling it an intellectual property war security experts said that hackers are trying to obtain trial results early and seize sensitive information about mass production of drugs.

China and Russia are also racing to develop a vaccine, bringing together its state, military and private sectors to combat a disease that has killed over 1.39 million people worldwide.

Earlier this month, A report by Microsoft revealed that hackers for the Russian and North Korean governments have targeted more than half a dozen of organisations involved in the COVID-19 treatment and vaccine research from around the globe.

In this report by Microsoft, the tech giant stated that a Russian hacking group, known as 'Fancy Bear', and a pair of North Korean actors called "Zinc" and "Cerium", by Microsoft, were implicated as they tried to break into the networks of nearly seven pharmaceutical companies and vaccine researchers in fice countries, namely, Canada, France, India, South Korea, and the United States.

(With inputs from agencies)