China syndromeChinese hackers infiltrate Wall Street Journal’s computer systems
Chinese hackers with government connections have infiltrated the computer systems of the Wall Street Journal, in the second such Chinese attack on a major U.S. media outlet. WSJ says the hackers were trying to monitor its coverage of Chinese affairs.
Chinese hackers with government connections have infiltrated the computer systems of the Wall Street Journal, in the second such Chinese attack on a major U.S. media outlet.
WSJ says the hackers were trying to monitor its coverage of Chinese affairs.
The New York Times has also reported that Chinese hackers, over a period of four months, had “persistently” penetrated its systems for the last four months.
The BBC reports that in both the WSJ and NYT cases, the Chinese hackers tried to learn the names of the Chinese sources who provided NYT and WSJ journalists wealth of information about corruption of high Chinese officials and their family members.
China, using its military intelligence services, has been engaged in a vast espionage – and industrial espionage – campaign against Western companies and governments for more than a decade now. China is using government-paid hackers, and the technological resources of its intelligence services, to short-cut its way to global economic hegemony by stealing the industrial secrets and technologies from Western companies, giving these secrets to Chinese companies which, with government subsidies, then sell these technologies in the West at cut-rate prices.
The Chinese government hacking campaign against the NYT and WSJ did not have a commercial angel, but was motivated by the desire to prevent embarrassing stories about the corrupt practices of high-level Chinese officials from being divulged to Western newspapers.
WSJ publisher, Dow Jones & Co, released a statement on Thursday saying hacking attacks related to its China coverage were “an ongoing issue.”
“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,” a spokeswoman for the newspaper said.
“We continue to work closely with the authorities and outside security specialists, taking extensive measures to protect our customers, employees, journalists and sources.”
She said the paper has completed a network overhaul to bolster security.
