Chinese hackers steal data on Spanish COVID-19 vaccine

Chinese hackers have stolen information from Spanish laboratories working on a vaccine for Covid-19, El Pais newspaper wrote on Friday, Report says.

The report emerged as drug companies around the world race to produce an effective jab to counter a virus that has now killed more than 940,000 people and infected 30 million.

It was not clear what information was taken, when it happened, nor how important it was, with the paper citing sources privy to the attack.

Quoted in the article, Spain's secret service chief Paz Esteban said hackers had mounted "a particularly virulent campaign targeting laboratories working on the search for a vaccine" not only in Spain but elsewhere.

On Thursday, Esteban, who heads the CNI intelligence services, said a "qualitative and quantitative" increase in attacks during a lockdown, with hackers targeting "sensitive sectors such as healthcare and pharmaceuticals."

Such attacks had multiplied in other countries involved in efforts to develop a vaccine, prompting an exchange of information between their respective spy services, she said.

There are now a dozen projects in Spain related to the development of a coronavirus vaccine. Spain has not yet conducted human trials of drugs. According to the World Health Organization, countries worldwide are currently developing about 180 coronavirus vaccines, 35 of which are tested on humans.