Credit: Photo by Shannon Stapleton/Reuters accessed from music.yahoo.com
The New York Times (NYT) reported that they have been hacked by China for at least four months apparently attempting to source out intelligence about billions of dollars accumulated by relatives of China’s Prime Minister Wen Jiabao. Hackers from China, the media outfit claimed, breached their network and stole passwords of their employees to gain access to at least 53 employees’ personal computers.
However, Jill Abramson, executive editor of The New York Times emphasized, “Computer security experts found no evidence that sensitive e-mails or files from the reporting of our articles about the Wen family were accessed, downloaded, or copied.”
In other words, experts found no traces of evidence could directly conclude that hackers from China used passwords to track information that lead to the reports about billions of dollars Wen’s relatives have amassed.
Furthermore, security experts could only identify traces associated with cyberattacks originating in China. Moreover, experts hired by the NYT believed that the source of the same cyberattack in the attempt to be undetected can be traced back from the same university computers in North Carolina, Arizona, Wisconsin, and New Mexico, used previously by the Chinese military.
Now, how could security experts’ alleged discoveries be authenticated, considering other elements in the intelligence arena can manufacture and fabricate security breach using their highly classified advanced computer and communication technology?
On the contrary to the NYT hired security experts statements, everybody may simply ask: how really accurate those allegations are that China is responsible for the cyber breach just merely relying on traces routing back to China? What if the hacking was only a staged collaborative effort made by some elements inhabiting China as their base of operation? Should NYT be serious in accusing China government of cyber-spying them?
Implying China to collaborating its military to track intelligence report of the NYT about the alleged China’s prime minister relatives on fortune deal wealth was unacceptable, unreliable effort being reported. What maybe rather outwitting could either be NYT collaborated with China’s detractors or simply a malicious propaganda against the rising Chinese empire. Except for the few, we all don’t know.
Whatever has this intelligence maneuvering pointed out, NYT still lacks accurate evidence against China.
Filed under: Opinion and Social Issues Tagged: | china hacks new york times, cyber spying, Jill Abramson, NYT hacked by china, The New York Times, Wen Jiabao
