Hacker attack on The Washington Post

Unknown hackers have reportedly targeted the US newspaper and gained access to internal emails. Journalists reporting on China are among those affected.

According to media reports, the “Washington Post” has become the target of a hacker attack. Editor-in-chief Matt Murray informed employees of the US daily newspaper on Sunday (local time) about a “possible targeted unauthorized intrusion” into their work emails, as the Wall Street Journal and CNN reported, citing an internal memo. A “limited number” of employees were affected, including journalists who write about national security, economic policy and China.

The hacker attack was reportedly discovered on Thursday. As a result, the login details for the email accounts of all employees were reset and an investigation was launched. No other systems were affected and readers were not expected to be impacted. As the “Wall Street Journal” reported, citing employees of the “Washington Post”, sensitive information is rarely exchanged via email, but via internal communication services such as Slack and encrypted messengers such as Signal.

Trail possibly leads abroad

The Washington Post has not yet commented on the reports. It was initially unclear who was behind the attack. It was possibly the work of a foreign government, reported the “Wall Street Journal”, citing anonymous sources at the “Washington Post”.

When asked about the cyberattack, the spokesperson for the Chinese foreign office stated that they knew nothing about the incident. All countries are affected by such attacks and the People’s Republic has always rejected them and acted against cyber attacks in accordance with the law, said Guo Jiakun in Beijing.

DJV calls for more protection in Germany too

The German Journalists’ Association (DJV) has also called for increased protective measures against hacker attacks in Germany. “The hacker attack must be a wake-up call for all media,” says DJV Federal Chairman Mika Beuster. “It must be in the best interests of publishers and broadcasters to build an effective virtual wall of protection around their media.” According to the DJV Chairman, it is important to look beyond China. Conflict regions such as Russia and Iran in particular leave no stone unturned to prevent free and critical reporting about their countries.

dpa