News Corp, one of the largest media conglomerates in the world that owns publications including The Wall Street Journal and The New York Post, has announced it fell victim to a cyberattack targeting employee email accounts, according to The Guardian.
The Rupert Murdoch-owned company says that the attack affected a limited number of people, though it believes the incident was an espionage operation backed by China.
News Corp said in an email to employees that "our preliminary analysis indicates that foreign government involvement may be associated with this activity, and that some data was taken." It also mentions its concern for the wellbeing of its staff, and in particular its journalists.
The email describes the attack as "persistent nation-state attack" that had been contained.
News Corp says it does not appear that any financial information or user data was stolen, and it did not disclose how many email accounts were targeted, or what portion of those targeted were journalists.
After discovering the attack in late January, News Corp contacted Mandiant to conduct an initial assessment of the incident. Mandiant concluded that the attack had links to China and the threat actors "are likely involved in espionage activities to collect intelligence to benefit China's interests."
This attack comes on the heels of a warning from FBI Director Christopher Wray about China. He recently accused the Chinese government of stealing "staggering volumes of information" using "a massive, sophisticated hacking program that is bigger than those of every other major nation combined," with well-funded operations based in every major Chinese city, according to The Guardian.
This incident also coincides with the beginning of the 2022 Winter Olympics, held in Beijing, China.
CitizenLab recently released a report detailing a "devastating security flaw" in the MY2022 Olympics app, an app required for all athletes, journalists, and general attendees to report COVID-19 information. While the app collects data related to COVID-19, it also collects a wide variety of personal information, essentially allowing China to spy on everyone in attendance of the Games.
See the original story from The Guardian.