Washington Post probes hacking attempts on journalists' email accounts

By Mark Anderson and Jane Lanhee Lee

 

The Washington Post is investigating a cyberattack on the email accounts of some journalists, prompting the newspaper to beef up its online security. 

The intrusion was discovered late Thursday and the company carried out a forced reset of login credentials for all staff the following night, according to a memo sent by Executive Editor Matt Murray to affected employees on Sunday. The memo, reviewed by Bloomberg News, said the attack affected a limited number of email accounts of journalists and a forensic team had been brought in to investigate.

 

The attack was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, which cited unnamed sources as saying the hack was potentially the work of a foreign government. The report said journalists on the national security and economic policy teams, including those covering China, had been targeted. Staffers were told their Microsoft accounts had been compromised, possibly granting access to emails they had sent and received, it added. 

 

In April and May, Chinese state-backed hackers repeatedly probed a part of the Post’s IT infrastructure, according to a person familiar with matter, who spoke on condition they not be identified because they were not authorized to discuss it. It’s unclear whether those efforts were related to the breach of the paper found last week or if the probes allowed the hackers to break into its computer systems, said the person.

 

Representatives of the newspaper and Microsoft declined to comment on Monday. 

 

Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said China “has always opposed and cracked down on any form of cyberattacks.”

 

“We also firmly oppose smear attacks without factual basis,” he said. “Relevant parties should stop using cybersecurity issues to slander and discredit China and stop spreading false information about Chinese hacker threats.” 

 

The Post was previously targeted by hackers in a series of breaches dating back to 2011, some of which were blamed on Chinese groups.

 

Journalists are frequent targets of cyberattacks, given their access to sensitive information and broad networks of contacts. The Post breach was thought to only involve emails and its reporters typically use encrypted platforms for conversations with sources, the Journal reported.