NY Times says Chinese hacked its computers over story on top Communist leader's wealth

.foxnews ^ | January 31, 2013

[dennisw]

The attacks, which began in mid-September, coincided with a Times investigation into how the relatives and family of Premier Wen Jiabao built a fortune worth over $2 billion. The report, which was posted online Oct. 25, embarrassed the Communist Party leadership, coming ahead of a fraught transition to new leaders and exposing deep-seated favoritism at a time when many Chinese are upset about a wealth gap.

Over the months of cyber-incursions, the hackers eventually lifted the computer passwords of all Times employees and used them to get into the personal computers of 53 employees.

The report said none of the Times' customer data was compromised and that information about the investigation into the Wen family remained protected, though it left unclear what data or communications the infiltrators accessed.

"Computer security experts found no evidence that sensitive emails or files from the reporting of our articles about the Wen family were accessed, downloaded or copied," the report quoted executive editor Jill Abramson as saying. A Times spokeswoman declined to comment further.

The Chinese foreign and defense ministries called the Times' allegations baseless, and the Defense Ministry denied any involvement by the military.

"Chinese law forbids hacking and any other actions that damage Internet security," the Defense Ministry said in a statement. "The Chinese military has never supported any hacking activities. Cyber-attacks are characterized by being cross-national and anonymous. To accuse the Chinese military of launching cyber-attacks without firm evidence is not professional and also groundless."

[dennisw]

as if these hapless libs don’t have enough headaches with all the layoffs going on

[Red Badger]

Are they complaining or bragging?...........

[Mr. Jeeves]

And Wen is the “nice” guy...wonder what they will do when Xi Jinping’s finances are questioned?

[onedoug]

Good gosh! commies hacking commies.

[staytrue]

What a country, In America, you can always find a party. In China, Party always finds you!

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

Screw’em they’ve covered up so much about obie I don’t care what happens to them.

[Timocrat]

Is the Times sure that they weren’t just hacking Krugmans columns for some propaganda tips.

[Gator113]

Hey China-thumbs up-....

Let us know if you need the personal home addresses of each of the employees. You know, just so that you can stop by and apologize for your bad.

[Zhang Fei]

They're trying to find out who leaked the info on Wen's alleged holdings. It's a real Spy vs Spy situation. The corruption allegations might be real or they might be false - the placid surface of bland official pronouncements conceals a lot of factional intrigue. Like politicians everywhere, they're undoubtedly all trying to stab each other in the back for personal advancement or as a pre-emptive defense against being accused of malfeasance. As a country with a rich tradition of palace intrigue, China should offer plenty of opportunities for meaty headlines. It's up to enterprising reporters from the West to unearth these headlines-in-the-making, because the tame local/Asian media* will certainly ignore them.

* A lot of big Asian media outlets are owned by conglomerates with significant business investments in China, investments they won't put at risk to expose high-level corruption in China.

[dennisw]

The Chinese like the yin stealth way of doing in their enemy. So the higher quality place intrigue there compared to the European tradition which is more out in the open, blustering and clumsy. Sun Tzu teaches the yin and elusive way of warfare. Thus you get their asymmetric warfare doctrines when it comes to taking on America

Please observe that Obama being yin and not so masculine also prefers yin stealth warfare against conservatives and Republicans.....demagoguery too twisting the peoples (sheeples) hearts. The classical Chinese would endorse this approach. Brainwashing the sheeple