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Industrial espionage has been around long before companies needed to protect the identity of 13 herbs and spices or the cola recipe locked in an Atlanta pharmacist's safe. And scientists, being human after all, have sought to know what their "colleagues" are working on since Archimedes experimented with levers and fulcrums.
Today, however, the stakes and activity levels seem higher than ever, leading to serious interest in how to secure research and the instruments of experimentation.
Recent examples underscore why. In the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, for one, the US government accused China of spying on vaccine research. And incidents like the ransomware attack on the University of California at San Francisco, which was working to develop a COVID-19 treatment or vaccine, show that attackers are having a serious impact on some research institutions.
The question for cybersecurity professionals is how they can help keep their organizations' research capabilities from joining the list of victims.
"Right now, any research related to a cure for COVID-19 is the primary target for threat actors," says Hank Schless, senior manager, security solutions at Lookout.
The research for that critical topic shares qualities with research activities across the b ..
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