In late March, Canada's Communications Security
Establishment (CSE) warned researchers across the country to secure
their COVID-19 data because "sophisticated threat actors"
— read state-sponsored hackers — were exploiting the
chaos of the pandemic in an effort to steal critical vaccine
research, some of which is now ongoing in Halifax.
In mid-April, Google's threat analysis group announced that
it blocked almost 18 million COVID-related malware and phishing
emails ... per day. On May 13, the FBI and U.S. Cybersecurity and
Infrastructure Security Agency warned that Chinese hackers were
attempting to steal data from a number of organizations conducting
coronavirus research.
So it should not have come as much surprise when the Trump
administration recently charged two Chinese nationals with
cyber-crimes and also ordered the country to close its consulate in
Houston. It also shouldn't have shocked observers when the CSE,
in a July statement with its U.S. and U.K.
