WSJ and NYT accuse Chinese hackers of infiltrating their newsgathering systems

And the saga continues. Just a year after Bloomberg News was reportedly targeted by Chinese hackers, both The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times have independently published reports suggesting that they too are being probed. Both organizations seem to think that it's all part of a larger scheme, with Chinese hackers sifting through newsgathering systems of outlets that are reporting on touchy subjects. As the Times puts it: "The attacks appear to be part of a broader computer espionage campaign against American news media companies that have reported on Chinese leaders and corporations."

When asked about such a possibility, China's Ministry of National Defense (unsurprisingly) denied the allegations, noting that "to accuse the Chinese military of launching cyberattacks without solid proof is unprofessional and baseless." As it stands, the FBI is already looking into various attacks of this nature, but strangely, the hacking attempts aren't being universally viewed as malicious. Paula Keve, chief spokeswoman for Dow Jones & Co., stated: "Evidence shows that infiltration efforts target the monitoring of the Journal's coverage of China, and are not an attempt to gain commercial advantage or to misappropriate customer information." As you'd expect, both outfits are stepping up security in a major way in hopes of fending off any future attempts.

Filed under: Internet

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Source: The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times