The Foreign Secretary warned of hostile states and criminal gangs exploiting the coronavirus crisis for fraud and espionage.
Dominic Raab said the “vast majority” of nations have come together to defeat Covid-19 but some will always “seek to exploit a crisis for their own criminal and hostile ends”.
He added: “We have clear evidence now that these criminal gangs are actively targeting national and international organisations which are responding to the Covid-19 pandemic which I have to say makes them particularly dangerous and venal at this time.
“Our teams have identified campaigns targeting healthcare bodies, pharmaceutical companies, research organisations and various different arms of local government.
“There are various objectives and motivations that lie behind these attacks from fraud on one hand to espionage but they tend to be designed to steal bulk personal data, intellectual property and wider information that supports those aims and they’re with other state actors.”
Dominic Raab said the predatory behaviour will “continue to evolve” and advice will help targets better defend against cyber attacks from “hostile states” and “criminal gangs”.
The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre and the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency have issued a joint warning over the concerns, Mr Raab added.
It comes as UK testing again failed to meet the 100,000 target set by the government, which was met at the end of April but has since dropped off.
Mr Raab said 84,806 tests were carried out on Monday.
Some 194,990 people have tested positive for coronavirus, an increase of 4,406 from 24 hours earlier.
A further 693 people have died in hospitals, care homes and the wider community after testing positive for coronavirus in the UK as of 5pm on Monday.
More to follow.
