Foreign spies targeting organisations fighting coronavirus pandemic for 'their own nefarious ends'

Foreign cyber spies are “exploiting the [coronavirus] situation to their own nefarious ends” by targeting organisations tackling the pandemic with online attacks, the Government has warned.
Watch more of our videos on Shots! 
and live on Freeview channel 276
Visit Shots! now

Speaking at the daily coronavirus briefing in 10 Downing Street today, Foreign Secretary Dominc Raab said there was “clear evidence” that organisations such as universities, healthcare bodies, research facilities, pharmaceutical companies, and local government had been hit by cyberattacks with aims ranging “from fraud on one hand to espionage”.

He said the attacks were “often linked to other state actors” and although he did not name the countries behind the attacks, he said the UK and USA had worked together to issue guidance and “deter the gangs and arms of state who lie behind them”.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Join our new coronavirus Facebook group for the latest confirmed news and advice as soon as we get it

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab. Photo: PAForeign Secretary Dominic Raab. Photo: PA
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab. Photo: PA

Mr Raab said the “vast majority” of nations have come together to defeat Covid-19 but some will always “seek to exploit a crisis for their own criminal and hostile ends”.

“We have clear evidence now that these criminal gangs are actively targeting national and international organisations which are responding to the Covid-19 pandemic which I have to say makes them particularly dangerous and venal at this time,” he said.

“Our teams have identified campaigns targeting healthcare bodies, pharmaceutical companies, research organisations and various different arms of local government.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“There are various objectives and motivations that lie behind these attacks from fraud on one hand to espionage but they tend to be designed to steal bulk personal data, intellectual property and wider information that supports those aims and they’re with other state actors.”

-------------------------

Editor’s note: First and foremost - and rarely have I written down these words with more sincerity - I hope this finds you well.

Almost certainly you are here because you value the quality and the integrity of the journalism produced by The Yorkshire Post’s journalists - almost all of which live alongside you in Yorkshire, spending the wages they earn with Yorkshire businesses - who last year took this title to the industry watchdog’s Most Trusted Newspaper in Britain accolade.

And that is why I must make an urgent request of you: as advertising revenue declines, your support becomes evermore crucial to the maintenance of the journalistic standards expected of The Yorkshire Post. If you can, safely, please buy a paper or take up a subscription. We want to continue to make you proud of Yorkshire’s National Newspaper but we are going to need your help.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Postal subscription copies can be ordered by calling 0330 4030066 or by emailing [email protected]. Vouchers, to be exchanged at retail sales outlets - our newsagents need you, too - can be subscribed to by contacting subscriptions on 0330 1235950 or by visiting www.localsubsplus.co.uk where you should select The Yorkshire Post from the list of titles available.

If you want to help right now, download our tablet app from the App / Play Stores. Every contribution you make helps to provide this county with the best regional journalism in the country.

Sincerely. Thank you.

James Mitchinson

Editor