Cyberattack by China! News Corp says China likely behind hack of emails, documents

China is suspected of being behind the cyberattack on News Corp, according to a cybersecurity expert.

News Corp announced that it suffered a cyberattack which it believes China was behind.  (AFP)

The media company News Corp. said Friday that it believes a foreign government was behind a recent hack of its computer systems. China is suspected of being behind the attack, according to a cybersecurity expert. An internal memo to News Corp. employees said the company discovered “attack activity” Jan. 20 on a system used by several businesses, affecting a “limited number” of email accounts and documents that affected Dow Jones, News UK and the New York Post.

“Our preliminary analysis indicates that foreign government involvement may be associated with this activity, and that some data was taken,” said the note, which was obtained by Bloomberg News.

“We will not tolerate attacks on our journalism, nor will we be deterred from our reporting, which provides readers everywhere with the news that matters,” the letter said.

Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said that China “firmly opposes and combats cyberattacks and cyber theft in all forms.” 

“China is a staunch defender of cybersecurity and has long been a main victim of cyber thefts and attacks,” Liu said, adding that identifying the source of cyberattacks is a “complex technical issue.” “We hope that there can be a professional, responsible and evidence-based approach to identifying cyber-related incidents rather than making allegations based on speculations”

David Wong, vice president of consulting at cybersecurity firm Mandiant Inc., which is assisting News Corp. with its investigation, said his firm believes the attacks “have a China nexus.”

“We believe they are likely involved in espionage activities to collect intelligence to benefit China's interests,” he said.

A News Corp. filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday stated that an unnamed cloud service used by News Corp. was the “target of persistent cyberattack activity.” The company told regulators it was “remediating the issue, and to date has not experienced any related interruptions to its business operations or systems.”

The attack was previously reported by the Wall Street Journal.