Chinese hacking of US media becoming a “widespread phenomenon”

by Dan Goodin - Feb 1 2013, 9:40am AUSEDT

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.

 

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Tsunami 'ghost ship' sunk by US Coast Guard cannon fire

KODIAK, Alaska -- The US Coast Guard used cannon fire Thursday to sink a derelict Japanese "ghost ship" that was left drifting towards the US following last year's devastating tsunami.

The unmanned Ryou-Un Maru fishing boat was sent more than 6,000 feet to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean by a gunnery crew on a Coast Guard Cutter.

Coast Guard Petty Officer 1st Class David Mosley told NewsCore the 200-foot-long ship sank at around 6:15 p.m. Alaska time.

The crew began firing rounds at the slow-moving vessel from a 25-millimeter cannon at around 1 p.m. Alaska time, when the boat was 180 miles west of Sitka, Alaska.

The ship had entered heavily trafficked waters, where large cargo vessels and tankers travel from North America to Asia. The Coast Guard said it posed an "imminent threat" to sailors and the environment.

The Coast Guard reported a light fuel sheen on the water, which was expected to quickly dissipate, and a small amount of floating debris in the spot where the vessel went down.

The vessel had more than 2,000 gallons of fuel on board, although the Coast Guard does not believe this will cause any problems on shore, saying it should be dissipated naturally by the wind, wave and weather patterns before reaching land.

Earlier this year experts warned of a vast, loose debris field drifting inexorably toward the US West Coast following the magnitude 9.0 earthquake of March last year.

The wreckage could include virtually anything that floats, oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer told FOX News -- and that includes portions of houses, boats, ships, furniture, cars and even human remains. Close to 19,300 people are believed to have died in the disaster.

While the bulk of the debris was expected to hit some time in 2014, Ebbesmeyer said, "I would not be surprised to see some fishing vessels by April, and the main mass of debris start arriving a year from this March."

Oakland university shooter was hunting staff member who had left the school

The man accused of slaughtering seven people at Oakland's Oikos University was hoping to find and kill an administrator who no longer works at the school, police said Thursday.

One Goh -- who is reported to have confessed to the Monday killing spree -- was angry that the woman, whose name has not been released, refused him a full refund of his $6,000 tuition fees when he dropped out of his nursing classes late last year, the Oakland Tribune reported.

The woman's identity is being kept a secret due to concerns for her safety, but police said she left the school soon after Goh.

When he failed to find the woman, Goh instead killed six students and a receptionist with a semiautomatic handgun, also wounding three others, before stealing a victim's car and driving to nearby supermarket where he admitted his crimes to staff and was arrested.

He has been charged with seven counts of murder and related offenses, and faces the death penalty. Arraigned Wednesday, he is next scheduled to appear in court April 30 2012, when he is expected to enter a plea.

The husband of one victim, Efanye Chibuko, said Goh's poor behavior while he was a student at the school had been reported by his wife Doris, the class president, to staff.

"The school was aware of his violent tendencies," he said.

Also Thursday, police -- who are still trying to recover the murder weapon -- rushed to a trash can near the Oikos campus after a homeless man reported seeing a gun inside, but a search did not find a firearm. They are continuing to search waterways between the crime scene and arrest site.

The news follows claims a day earlier that Oikos nursing director Ellen Cervellon was Goh's target. Both Cervellon and a close friend were quoted by media outlets saying she had been the target, but was absent from campus Monday morning.