Wolf calls out China for trying to steal US coronavirus vaccine research: 'We need to stay on it'

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DHS secretary: We've seen more targeting of our health care industry throughout pandemic

Acting Dept. of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf claims Iran and China are targeting U.S. COVID-19 vaccine research.

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Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf told "Your World with Neil Cavuto" Friday that China is trying to steal information about COVID-19 vaccine research by American entities "so that they can be ... at the cutting edge of that research."

"What our Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, along with the FBI, did this week [is] to put out an advisory making sure that individuals, when it comes to COVID-19 research, understand that we have some bad actors," Wolf said. "China specifically, cyber actors.

"Also some nontraditional actors, such as journalists and other researchers ... are targeting our intellectual property when it comes to that research, targeting individuals such as our own researchers when it comes to this."

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The agencies recommend that organizations assume that press attention will lead to increased activity from nefarious actors, patch their relevant systems, suspend access by users engaging in “unusual activity” and scan for unauthorized access or “anomalous activities.”

The warning comes amid an escalating standoff between Beijing and Washington over the coronavirus pandemic, which originated in Wuhan, China. U.S. officials are investigating whether the naturally occurring virus came from a wet market or escaped from a Wuhan lab where sources have said it was being studied.

Wolf told Cavuto that the United States was also trying to address visa fraud by Chinese citizens and have imposed 90-day limits on work visas for Chinese journalists employed by non-U.S. media outlets. Journalists can apply for extensions, which are also capped at 90 days and require the applicant to undergo a reassesement and an interview.

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"And I think overall what we've seen, Neil, is as this pandemic has gone on and on, we see more targeting of our health care industry and specifically when it comes to China," Wolf said. "This isn't a surprise. We know that China for a very long time have been very bad actors in the cyber space cyberspace.

"So this isn't news to us, but we need to stay on it. We need to stay engaged with our other partners in the United States government and make sure that our private sector partners, the health care industry and others are aware of this and have their shields up as well."