According to two US agencies, operatives working for China’s Communist government are trying to hack pharmaceuticals and medical research organizations in the US and around the world to steal data on potential vaccines and cures.

Bloomberg writes:

Hackers working for the Chinese government are trying to steal valuable research on coronavirus vaccines and treatments from U.S. health care, pharmaceutical and research organizations, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security warned Wednesday.

“China’s efforts to target these sectors pose a significant threat to our nation’s response to Covid-19,” the Federal Bureau of Investigation and DHS’s Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency said in a joint statement.

The first country/company to develop a vaccine will receive a huge financial and of course political reward. Many suspect China’s communist regime is desperate to find a vaccine to gain political leverage during this pandemic.

Predictably, the communist regime denied its involvement, but experts say China has been hacking companies for intellectual property for decades.

READ: U.S. Warns That Chinese Hackers Are Targeting Virus Research

In 2012, cyber-security experts linked hacking originating from China to the collapse of Nortel, a major hi-tech company in Canada. READ: Nortel collapse linked to Chinese hackers