Journalists appear to be victims of E-mail compromise

by Steve Ragan - Mar 31 2010, 14:14

Andrew Jacobs, a New York Times reporter covering China, recently reported that his E-mail account was compromised by unknown sources. In addition to his account, several other journalists and human rights activists had their accounts compromised as well. The apparent connection is that they all cover China in one way or another.

Jacobs said he and the others, each known to write about China or Taiwan, had their Yahoo E-mail accounts rendered inaccessible. The explanation given, according to automated messages from Yahoo, was an “issue with your account”, and nothing more.

Yahoo declined to discuss the matter with Jacobs and the media as a whole, issuing a single statement that the company takes security seriously and that they take appropriate actions in the event of any kind of breach.

According to Jacobs’ report, the most recent attacks have snared a U.S. law professor, an analyst who covers China’s security apparatus, and journalists based in Beijing and Taipei. In his case, Jacobs noted that his Yahoo account was altered, “so that all correspondence was surreptitiously forwarded to another E-mail address.”

The Foreign Correspondents' Club of China issued a statement on Wednesday confirming eight cases in recent weeks where journalists were victims of Yahoo account hijackings, noting that several accounts were disabled on or around March 25. “Yahoo has not answered the FCCC’s questions about the attacks, nor has it told individual E-mail users how the accounts were accessed,” the statement said.

“We recommend that you take particular care with any information sent by E-mail, especially with any sensitive information sent via Yahoo accounts. Check your privacy and forwarding settings in all web-based mail… The FCCC reminds you that E-mail does not appear to be secure in China, and that alternate means of arranging interviews and conducting other sensitive business are often preferable.”

Kathleen McLaughlin, who sits on the FCCC’s board, told Jacobs in an interview that she felt uncomfortable over the incident, as “someone is clearly targeting journalists.”

The issue is troubling for Jacobs and the others because Yahoo has a history of cooperating with China’s government in the past. However, there is no evidence to link the outage to any official action, and without Yahoo on record, no one knows what really happened.

According to Symantec’s most recent Intelligence Report from MessageLabs, 28-pecent of targeted attacks, where malicious E-mails were sent in small volumes aiming at access or the collection of sensitive information from individuals, originated in China.

The report notes that Spam levels in Hong Kong reached 92-percent. Virus activity in Taiwan was 1 in 90.9 emails, making it the most targeted country for email-borne malware in March.

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