Washington: FBI Director Christopher Wray on Thursday warned that Chinese hackers have been persistently targeting U.S. companies conducting research related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a hearing before the Senate homeland security and governmental affairs committee, Wray described China as the “greatest counterintelligence threat” to the United States, describing “aggressive activity” to target research on vaccines, treatments, testing technology and other coronavirus matters.
Wray said in his opening statement that the FBI has opened a new China-related counterintelligence case “approximately every 10 hours” and that nearly half of the 5,000 active counterintelligence cases underway are related to China.
“Sometimes, without being too descriptive in an open setting, we can almost track a news report form some company or research institution that is announcing or revealing some progress … and then almost within days we will see cyber targeting that ties back to Chinese actors focusing on those institutions,” Wray said.
