Chinese hackers crack New York Times computer networks

[brynne]

CHINESE hackers have been continually attacking the New York Times' computer networks over the past four months, potentially as vengeance for a story it published about government corruption.

 

 

In October, The Times published a story that revealed that relatives of the country's premiere, Wen Jiabao, had somehow collected billions of dollars through various business deals.

Since the story was published hackers installed malware on The Times' network, allowing them access to any computer that was connected to it.

They also hacked into the email of The Times' Shanghai bureau chief who authored the story, David Barboza, as well as the email of former bureau chief Jim Yardly who is now the South Asia bureau chief in India.

 

 

The hackers stole passwords of every single Times employee which were then used to access personal computers of 53 workers' personal computers.

The Times hired security experts to investigate and block the attacks. They found that the hackers had been trying to hide their identities by rerouting the attacks through computers belonging to various US universities.

 

No customer details were stolen, The Times' security experts claim.

 

The security experts refused to be drawn over whether the attacks originated from the Chinese government or military, saying that "accusing the Chinese military of launching cyber attacks without solid proof is unprofessional and baseless."

 

They also said that Chinese law probits any kind of activity that would damage internet security, and that includes hacking.

 

The attacks appear to be small fry compared to the increasing number of attacks on the US that have been traced back to China, suggesting that they may be part of a larger spying campaign aimed at all levels of society from government to industry, activists to the press.