The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has warned of targeted attacks against UK universities and scientific facilities conducted by state-sponsored hackers in an attempt to steal information related to COVID-19 research, including vaccine development.

According to NCSC, which described the hacking attempts as "utterly reprehensible", the proportion of such attacks had increased, although the rate of criminal and state-sponsored cyber attacks targeting UK organizations has not changed during the COVID-19 outbreak.

The intelligence agency believes that nation-state actors behind the cyber espionage campaigns operate for Russia, Iran, and China.

“Any attack against efforts to combat the coronavirus crisis is utterly reprehensible. We have seen an increased proportion of cyber-attacks related to coronavirus and our experts work around the clock to help organizations targeted,” a spokesperson for NCSC said.

“However, the overall level of cyber-attacks from both criminals and states against the UK has remained stable during the pandemic.”

The security sources said the hackers have been unsuccessful so far and there have been no reports of cyber-attacks on NHS computer networks.

James Sullivan, a former cyber-analyst for the National Crime Agency and head of cyber research at the Royal United Services Institute told the Guardian that it was not surprising hostile states were targeting Covid-19 research.

“The pandemic will lead to a general increase in hostile state cyber-activity,” he said.

“It is a new opportunity for intelligence gathering and disruption. We’ve seen this with disinformation campaigns, cyber-espionage; there’s a risk of these all exacerbating political tension and it’s no surprise this is happening in an area such as the development of a vaccine,” he added.