Chinese Hackers Create Havoc At New York Times

[webfact]

Chinese hackers create havoc at New York Times

Nicole Perlroth

NEW YORK: -- For the past four months, Chinese hackers have persistently attacked The New York Times, infiltrating its computer systems and getting passwords for its reporters and other employees.

After surreptitiously tracking the intruders to study their movements and help erect better defences to block them, The Times and computer security experts have expelled the attackers and kept them from breaking back in.

The attacks appear to be part of a broader computer espionage campaign against US media companies that have reported on Chinese leaders and corporations.

The timing of the attacks coincided with the reporting for a Times investigation, published online October 25, that found that the relatives of Wen Jiabao, China's prime minister, had accumulated a fortune worth several billion dollars through business dealings.

Security experts hired by The Times to detect and block the computer attacks gathered digital evidence that Chinese hackers, using methods that some consultants have associated with the Chinese military in the past, breached The Times' network. They broke into the email accounts of its Shanghai bureau chief, David Barboza, who wrote the reports on Wen's relatives, and Jim Yardley, The Times' South Asia bureau chief in India, who previously worked as bureau chief in Beijing.

"Computer security experts found no evidence that sensitive emails or files from the reporting of our articles about the Wen family were accessed, downloaded or copied," said Jill Abramson, executive editor of The Times.

Full story: http://www.smh.com.a...0131-2dmq8.html

-- The Sydney Morning Heral 2013-01-31

[belg]

those people don't use VPN ? just block all chinese Ip ranges and know proxy servers

[kiwiinasia]

Well you reap what you sow!

The NYT should know better!

Just tell us the truth about Obama eh?

[TS79]

those people don't use VPN ? just block all chinese Ip ranges and know proxy servers

I think hackers are a little bit more sophisticated than this.

[dddave]

During the last month I have had intermittent difficulties accessing the NYT here in Bangkok through my online subscription. I would get server difficulty notices frequently when I tried to link to stories.

Thought those problems have seemed to have gone away, I still get a notice every time I open a page saying my "Free Trial" is used up even though I am a paying subscriber. I have to click through "Log-In" each time I open a new page;...really annoying.

I have no idea if subscriber services were affected by the hack but it would be a strange co-incidence.

[tombkk]

An off-topic post and a reply have been hidden from view. This is about China, not Thailand.

[manarak]

the Chinese were likely looking for the reporters' sources - if the email accounts were accessed, the Chinese now probably know who leaked the infos (if the reporters has contact with the leaks by email).

Edited January 31, 2013 by manarak

[CaptHaddock]

Hacking from China is the norm for a US internet company. The company I worked for was constantly probed over years. The ips were always in China. In the case of the NY Times, it might be occasioned by their coverage of political corruption. But, it might also be routine.