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China continues its cyber-attacks against journalists, with reports that once again Google, and individual GMail accounts have been targetted. A report received from the Committee to Protect Journalists January 19, revealed that foreign correspondents in Beijing had informed the CPJ of recent attempts to compromise journalists email accounts, and noted that reporters have operated under the suspicion that their internet/communication activities are vulnerable to cyber-attack and covert monitoring. According to the CPJ:
“A Monday posting on the Foreign Correspondents Club of China Web site, “Foreign correspondents in a few bureaus in Beijing have recently discovered that their Gmail accounts had been hijacked.” In its posting, the FCCC said e-mails in the affected accounts were being forwarded to strangers’ addresses. Google spokesman Scott Rubin told CPJ today he had no comment on the FCCC posting.
On January 13, CPJ expressed concern after Google, which owns Gmail, said it had uncovered evidence of cyber attacks from China targeting its own and other companies’ infrastructures, as well as individual Gmail accounts. CPJ welcomed Google’s statement that it was no longer willing to censor its Chinese search engine, google.cn, in light of the discovery.
“E-mail security is a major concern in China. Although attacks like these have not been directly linked to the government, the timing of these new assaults is worrisome given the dispute surrounding Google in China,” said Bob Dietz, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “E-mail security is always a problem in China. There was surveillance around the Olympics; we assume that during times like the Tibet riots [in 2008] or during big party conferences that we’ll be more closely watched,” a longtime correspondent for a large U.S. news organization told CPJ. “Surveillance and attacks like this are part of the reality when you work in China,” a freelance reporter told CPJ.”
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