By Star Chang, posted Jan 31, 2013 at 11:56 AM, 380 views,

Are Chinese Authorities Sending Hackers to Attack The New York Times ?

The New York Times has revealed that over the last four months, the company’s network was repeatedly attacked by Chinese hackers. The timing of the attacks coincided with reporting for an investigative article published last year October that revealed China’s prime minister had tried to hide a massive family fortune. Security experts say the hackers used methods consistent with the Chinese military. The Chinese hackers tried to hide their identity by routing their attacks on the NY Times through universities in the United States. Previous hacking attacks have used this method and many of those attacks originated from China …

The Chinese hackers installed 45 pieces malware in 3 months, which enabled them to gain entry to any computer on The Times’s network. The malware was identified by computer security experts as a specific strain associated with computer attacks originating in China. More evidence of the source is that the attacks started from the same university computers used by the Chinese military to attack United States military contractors in the past. Hackers broke into the email accounts of the New York Times’ Shanghai bureau chief, David Barboza, who wrote the China’s prime minister story. They also stole the corporate passwords for every newspaper employee and gained access to the personal computers of 53 employees.

Being attacked by hackers is the latest repercussion the New York Times has been dealt for its investigative piece about China’s prime minister wealth. After it was published, the English- and Chinese-language Web sites of the New York Times were blocked in China. China has a history of hacking many American companies, including United States White House and military. The attacks are done in order to control China’s public image by spying on different groups. Other U.S. news organizations that have been targeted by Chinese hackers include Bloomberg News, which was hacked last year after publishing an article about the family wealth of China’s next president.

As usual, we believe Beijing authorities will denied everything on hacking The New York Times, and put up some conspiracy theories saying western news organizations are trying to asperse the communist nation. Cyber attacking now is a part of an effort to intimidate sources for news that might tarnish the reputation of Chinese government. It’s scary, ugly and threatening, and this will never come to an end.

SOURCE: NYT