The publisher of The Sun, The Sunday Times and The Wall Street Journal has confessed its systems have been hacked with data stolen from journalists and other employees.
The cyber security firm investigating the intrusion said Chinese intelligence-gathering is believed to be behind the operation against Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, which also struck its News UK arm.
It was reported the hacking appeared to date back to February 2020 and that scores of employees had been affected. with hackers able to access reporters’ emails and Google Docs, including drafts of articles.
News Corp, whose publications and businesses include the New York Post and Journal parent Dow Jones, said it discovered the breach on January 20. But customer and financial data were so far not affected and company operations were not interrupted.
The potential impact on news reporting and sources is a serious concern. News organisations are prime targets for the world’s intelligence agencies because their reporters are in constant contact with sources of sensitive information.
Mandiant, the cyber security firm investigating the hack, said in a statement that it “assesses that those behind this activity have a China nexus, and we believe they are likely involved in espionage activities to collect intelligence to benefit China’s interests”.
In an email to staff, News Corp said the hack had “affected a limited number” of email accounts and documents from News Corp headquarters, News Technology Services, Dow Jones, News UK, and the New York Post.
“Our preliminary analysis indicates that foreign government involvement may be associated with this activity, and that some data was taken,” the email said.
“Our highest concern is the protection of our employees, including our journalists, and their sources,” it added, saying it believed the “threat activity is contained”.
FBI director Christopher Wray said the bureau opens investigations tied to suspected Chinese espionage operations about every 12 hours, and has more than 2,000 such probes. He said Chinese government hackers have been stealing more personal and corporate data than all other countries combined.
A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington did not explicitly deny Beijing’s involvement in the hack, but said in a statement that “China firmly opposes and combats cyber attacks and cyber theft in all forms”.
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