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Jan 19, 2010

Reporters' Gmail hacked

BEIJING - INTERNATIONAL journalists in China said that their Google e-mail accounts have been hacked in attacks similar to the ones against human rights activists that the search giant cited as a reason for considering pulling out of the country. In announcing a possible exit from China last week, Google did not specify how the accounts with its Gmail e-mail service were hacked into or by whom. Information since then has trickled out. The Foreign Correspondents' Club of China sent an e-mail on Monday to its members warning that reporters in at least two news bureaus in Beijing said their Gmail accounts had been broken into, with their e-mails surreptitiously forwarded to unfamiliar accounts.

Although the warning did not name the organisations, one of the accounts belonged to an Associated Press journalist. Mr John Daniszewski, senior managing editor for international news at the news cooperative in New York, deplored the breach and said the AP will be investigating to determine if any vital information was compromised. The foreign correspondents' club asked its members to be vigilant in protecting their e-mail accounts and computers from attack. 'We remind all members that journalists in China have been particular targets of hacker attacks in the last two years,' the club's message read. 'Please be very careful what you click on, and run virus checks regularly.' -- AP