Chinese Hackers Infiltrate WSJ Computer Systems

The Wall Street Journal said Thursday its computer systems had been infiltrated by Chinese hackers for the apparent purpose of monitoring the newspaper's China coverage.

The infiltration at the Journal, along with reports of computer network breaches at the New York Times and other outlets, indicate that Chinese spying on U.S. media has become a widespread phenomenon.

Chinese hackers have for years targeted major U.S. media companies with persistent hacking, repeatedly penetrating deep inside some news-gathering systems, according to several people familiar with the response to the cyber attacks.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has been probing these media incidents for more than a year, and considers the hacking a national security case against U.S. interests, according to people familiar with the matter.

Paula Keve, chief spokeswoman for the Journal's parent company Dow Jones & Co., said in a written statement: "Evidence shows that infiltration efforts target the monitoring of the Journal's coverage of China, and are not an attempt to gain commercial advantage or to misappropriate customer information." Dow Jones, which also publishes this newswire, is a unit of News Corp. (NWS).

Ms. Keve called the infiltration of networks related to coverage of China an "ongoing issue," adding, "we continue to work closely with the authorities and outside security specialists, taking extensive measures to protect our customers, employees, journalists and sources."

The statement said the Journal had on Thursday completed a network overhaul to bolster security.

"We fully intend to continue the aggressive and independent journalism for which we are known," she said.

According to people familiar with the Wall Street Journal incident, one of the ways the hackers penetrated the paper's computer system was through its Beijing bureau. The statement didn't address how the hacking occurred. The paper has faced hacking threats from China on and off during the past few years.

Google Inc. (GOOG) and computer-security firm RSA, among others, have previously acknowledged their systems have been infiltrated. People familiar with those breaches say they were connected to the Chinese government.

On Thursday, the New York Times published an extensive report detailing how hackers had infiltrated its systems and gained access to passwords belonging to reporters, among other employees. The paper said it believed it had expelled the hackers from its system.

Eileen Murphy, a spokeswoman for the New York Times, a unit of the New York Times Co. (NYT), said, "We stand behind our story and explain why we believe [the hacking] came from China."

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