Forward Slash podcast: Coronavirus vaccine the No 1 target for state-based hackers

The cure for COVID-19 has become the hottest target for nation state hacking.

CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz says sophisticated hackers were targeting medical facilities and private companies to help nab information about a vaccine. Picture: Adam Yip

The cure for COVID-19 has become the hottest target for nation state hacking, the company responsible for investigating the Democratic National Committee and Sony Pictures hacks said.

Speaking to The Australian for the latest episode of the Forward Slash podcast, released on Tuesday, CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said sophisticated hackers were targeting medical facilities and private companies to help nab information about a vaccine.

Weeks ago, Scott Morrison warned that a “sophisticated state-based cyber actor” was ­currently attacking Australian ­organisations.

“What is the most valuable piece of information you could possibly have either in technology or information today? It’s a cure,” Mr Kurtz said.

“Anything related to that is a nation state issue, and if your population is infected, think about all the damage that’s taking place across all these economies.

‘‘We’ve seen wars, we’ve seen social issues, but this has taken a dramatic toll and I think COVID-19 far exceeds a lot of these, from a financial perspective and a human perspective.”

Mr Kurtz said CrowdStrike had seen a spike in companies working on cures or vaccines for COVID-19 being targeted by ­nation state hackers.

“Every government on the planet wants to know what each company is doing in the private sector, to be able to find a cure for this,” he said.

Australian Strategic Policy Institute senior analyst Tom Uren said COVID-19 had fast become the highest priority target for hackers. “It’s thrown a whole lot of priorities out the window, so all of a sudden COVID-19 is the most important thing out there,” he said. “Intelligence agencies are looking for answers that may help with COVID-19, and that may be vaccine research, drug research — and that kind of information can be fed into how you prepare to ­recover from COVID-19.

“If there’s a particular drug that you need to manufacture, let’s start getting the supply chains in place for that. And if there’s a particular vaccine, perhaps start investing in a factory to make it. These are the kinds of things that are going on.”

Forward Slash is a podcast series about how change and technology are colliding. Find Forward Slash in The Australian’s app or your favourite podcast app to subscribe and listen to the latest episode.