An unnamed U.S. security official told Reuters on Friday that hackers linked to the Chinese government have targeted Moderna, Inc., a Massachusetts-based biotech \u2026<\/b>
\nAn unnamed U. S. security official told Reuters on Friday that hackers linked to the Chinese government have targeted Moderna, Inc., a Massachusetts-based biotech firm conducting research on vaccines for the Wuhan coronavirus. Moderna representatives confirmed that the company has been in contact with the FBI about \u201cinformation reconnaissance activities\u201d conducted against it by the Chinese hackers identified in an indictment that was unsealed Tuesday. Reuters\u2019 government source did not provide many details of the alleged cyberattack. Moderna representatives said the company \u201cremains highly vigilant to potential cybersecurity threats\u201d and mentioned the link to Chinese nationals Li Xiaoyu and Dong Jiazhi, named in an 11-count indictment unsealed by the U. S. Justice Department (DOJ) this week. Li and Dong were charged with running a massive decade-long cyberespionage campaign, with direction and assistance from Chinese intelligence agents, that recently included coronavirus research among its targets. Reuters described Moderna as \u201cone of the earliest and biggest bets by the Trump administration to fight the pandemic,\u201d noting it has received half a billion dollars in government support and is currently running a clinical trial for a coronavirus vaccine that has nearly 30,000 participants. At least two other American biotech firms were allegedly targeted by Li and Dong. Reuters looked at some clues in the indictment and speculated they are Gilead Sciences Inc. of California and Novavax Inc. of Maryland. Neither of those companies was willing to comment at length on the story, but Novavax confirmed its cybersecurity team has been \u201calerted to the alleged foreign threats identified in the news.\u201d The Chinese Foreign Ministry denounced the allegations in the Reuters report as \u201cbaseless\u201d and insisted China \u201cabsolutely does not, nor need to, engage in theft to achieve\u201d its supposedly \u201cleading position\u201d in coronavirus research.<\/p>\n