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U.S. Officials: Beware of China and Others Trying to Steal COVID-19 Research

posted by martyb on Tuesday May 12 2020, @08:57PM   Printer-friendly
from the we-will-share-whatever-we-find,-right? dept.

takyon writes:

U.S. Officials: Beware Of China And Others Trying To Steal COVID-19 Research

As researchers around the globe race to develop a coronavirus vaccine, U.S. authorities are warning American firms to exercise extreme caution in safeguarding their research against China and others with a track record of stealing cutting-edge medical technology.

"We are imploring all those research facilities and hospitals and pharmaceutical companies that are doing really great research to do everything in their power to protect it," Bill Evanina, the director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, said in an interview with NPR.

"We don't want that company or the research hospital to be the one a year from now, two years from now, identified as having it all stolen before they finished it," said Evanina, whose center falls under the director of national intelligence.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Britain's National Cyber Security Center recently issued a statement saying hackers are "actively targeting organisations ... that include healthcare bodies, pharmaceutical companies, academia, medical research organisations, and local government."

The statement did not name China or any other country. Reuters reported that hackers linked to Iran tried to break into email accounts at the U.S. drugmaker Gilead Sciences, which has a potentially promising drug to treat the COVID-19 virus. Iran denied the report.

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  • (Score: 2) by driverless on Wednesday May 13 2020, @01:19PM (1 child)

    by driverless (4770) on Wednesday May 13 2020, @01:19PM (#993735)

    I'm almost sure that if China will come first with a vaccine, the current US administration will just refuse to buy it.

    What would be really funny/silly/sad is if some other country came up with a vaccine and the US then used the provisions of the Doha Declaration, intended to help developing nations and which the US fought tooth and nail every step of the way, to manufacture it in the US.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  
    Total Score:   2  

  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by c0lo on Wednesday May 13 2020, @02:00PM

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday May 13 2020, @02:00PM (#993749) Journal

    To be entirely sincere, I don't think the actual administration will try to block the import, it will be Trump to fight importing it. Perhaps not in the most obvious way (e.g. suddenly FDA will be instructed to apply the most stringent certification protocols), but he'll very likely fight the import.

    Because importing it would be admitting his incompetence in dealing with covid**, that he failed to MAGA, that he lost the "trade war that was to be so easy to win"

    ---

    ** his only chances: either US discovers it (and, woohoo, Trump will take some credit) or a vaccine is not possible (and "toldcha one day the virus will just disappear")

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford