In the Line of Fire: The Press Gets Hacked

Amy Larsen DeCarlo

Summary Bullets:

• Press organizations, including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, strongly suspect that Chinese hackers infiltrated their networks looking for information on news sources and research.
• These attacks – and private sector incidents – underscore the increasing prominence of politically, ideologically, and revenge-driven attacks in the threat environments.

2013 is starting where 2012 left off, with ideologically and politically motivated attacks making headlines, and in the case of a few recent high-profile breaches, making the news outlets that write those headlines extremely anxious.  The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and a number of other press organizations have publicized their own battles against what they suspect are politically backed hackers which have successfully breached their networks in search of data gathered on sources that exposed government scandals.  Though its government has denied any involvement, China specifically has been named for the role that attackers, suspected to be/accused of acting on its behalf, have played on hacking into journalist’s files in search of information used in articles on corruption and other political issues in China.