WASHINGTON (AP) – News Corp, publisher of The Wall Street Journal, said Friday that it had been hacked and had data stolen from journalists and other employees, and a cybersecurity firm investigating the intrusion said Chinese intelligence-gathering was believed behind the operation.
The news company, whose publications and businesses include the New York Post and WSJ parent Dow Jones, said it discovered the breach on Jan. 20. It said in a regulatory filing that an investigation is underway “to determine its nature, scope, duration and impacts.” It said customer and financial data were so far not affected and that the company’s operations had not been interrupted.
But a major concern was the company’s journalists. News organizations are prime targets for the world’s intelligence agencies because their reporters are in constant contact with sources of sensitive information. Journalists and newsrooms from Mexico and El Salvador to Qatar, where Al-Jazeera is based, have been hacked with powerful spyware.
Mandiant, the cybersecurity firm examining the hack, said in a statement that it “assesses that those behind this activity have a China nexus, and we believe they are likely involved in espionage activities to collect intelligence to benefit China’s interests.”
It was not known when the hackers breached the network or how much data they stole.