Computer systems operated by
The Wall Street Journal
have been penetrated by Chinese hackers for the apparent purpose of
monitoring the publication's coverage of China, the newspaper reported
Thursday.
The acknowledgement came in a
short article published less than 24 hours after
The New York Times reported a
similar breach. According to the earlier report, the
NYT
network had been rooted for four months by hackers who were intent on
gathering intelligence about a series of stories related to the family
of China’s prime
minister.
The report cited unnamed sources as saying Bloomberg News was also
targeted by Chinese hackers after the news organization published an
article in June about the wealth accumulated by relatives of Xi Jinping.
Xi has since become China's general secretary of the Communist Party
and is expected to become president in March.
The
NYT went on to say that media outlets have been targeted since 2008, and today's
WSJ article characterized the hacking campaign as extensive.
"The infiltration at the
Journal, along with reports of computer network breaches at the
New York Times and other news outlets, indicate that Chinese spying on US media has become a widespread phenomenon," the
WSJ
said. "Chinese hackers for years have targeted major US media companies
with hacking, repeatedly penetrating deep inside some newsgathering
systems, according to several people familiar with the response to the
cyberattacks."
The FBI has been investigating the attacks on media outlets for more
than a year and considers the activity a national-security case against
US interests, the paper said, citing unnamed people familiar with the
matter. The
WSJ hacks,
which company executives said are "ongoing," aren't an attempt to gain
commercial advantage or to appropriate customer data, Thursday's report
said. The
WSJ has overhauled its computer systems to improve security.
Dan Goodin / Dan is the IT Security Editor at Ars Technica, which he joined in 2012 after working for The
Register, the Associated Press, Bloomberg News, and other publications.
