Chennai: A Chinese state-backed hacking group has in recent weeks targeted the IT systems of two Indian vaccine makers whose coronavirus shots are being used in the countrys immunisation campaign cyber intelligence firm Cyfirma said. China and India have both sold or gifted Covid-19 shots to many countries. India produces more than 60 per cent of all vaccines sold in the world. Goldman Sachs-backed Cyfirma based in Singapore and Tokyo said Chinese hacking group APT10 also known as Stone Panda had identified gaps and vulnerabilities in the IT infrastructure and supply chain software of Bharat Biotech and the Serum Institute of India (SII) the worlds largest vaccine maker. “The real motivation here is actually exfiltrating intellectual property and getting competitive advantage over Indian pharmaceutical companies” said Cyfirma chief executive Kumar Ritesh formerly a top cyber official with British foreign intelligence agency MI6. He said APT10 was actively targeting SII which is making the AstraZeneca vaccine for many countries and will soon start bulk-manufacturing Novavax shots. “In the case of Serum Institute they have found a number of their public servers running weak web servers these are vulnerable web servers” Ritesh said referring to the hackers. “They have spoken about weak web application they are also talking about weak content-management system. Its quite alarming”. However Chinas foreign ministry spokesperson has responded to the claims calling them speculation and fabrication. “As a staunch defender of cyber security China firmly opposes and cracks down on all forms of cyber attacks” spokesperson Wang Wenbin said.

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