Slashdot Mirror
Journalists' Yahoo E-Mail Accounts Compromised In China
andy1307 writes "According to this article in the New York Times, 'In what appears to be a coordinated assault, the e-mail accounts of at least a dozen rights activists, academics and journalists who cover China have been compromised by unknown intruders. The infiltrations, which involved Yahoo e-mail accounts, appeared to be aimed at people who write about China and Taiwan, rendering their accounts inaccessible, according to those who were affected. In the case of this reporter, hackers altered e-mail settings so that all correspondence was surreptitiously forwarded to another e-mail address. ... The victims of the most recent intrusions included a law professor in the United States, an analyst who writes about China's security apparatus and several print journalists based in Beijing and Taipei, the capital of Taiwan."
Don't you know that you should do your wiretapping directly at the ISP level, like real Americans?
China is a totalitarian state. Has been since 1949. What free trade has done is to make it a rich totalitarian state instead of a poor one. I never understood the argument that capitalism would lead to anything like democracy. Democracy [usually] leads to at least some level of capitalist/free-enterprise economy, but not the other way around.
Reminds me of all those emails I get from the head of the International Bank of Nigeria who somehow has to use hotmail/gmail/yahoo mail. Or how the "British National Lottery" also can't afford it's own mail server.
Seriously, "journalists" can't use anything but yahoo? Or even if they were limited to yahoo - they can't encrypt their email?
I suspect these "journalists" are just some "random group of people" and that the story is just more hype.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
People roll their eyes when I tell them I don't buy products made in China. I refuse to support a government with such an abusive human rights record.
It's tough at times finding a product not made in China, but I use the free market to make my point.
Some people talk the talk when it comes to making a statement. Very few actually walk the walk.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
With reports like "Yahoo 'helped jail China writer'" in 2005 ... would most people with any public or private interest in China stay with Yahoo's products in any form after its "complicity" over the past years?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4221538.stm
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Yeah, real journalists use their ISP's webmail (*cough*), their own servers (which can be confiscated) or their friends (also confiscateable). Then you have the possibility of offshore email accounts on an american friend's server (which will get blocked). At least when using webmail, the others have to either break in the servers (like they did in TFA) or subpoena them (which I don't see the Chinese govt. do tbh).
I think I probably wrote the same thing when news of the GMail hacking allegations came out: Who is dumb enough to use a public webmail service for confidential email? Don't they have access to any good advice? Training? Or just think it through a little -- does Yahoo Mail seem like a secure place to store sensitive data?
False flag operations "False flag operations are covert operations which are designed to deceive the public in such a way that the operations appear as though they are being carried out by other entities. The name is derived from the military concept of flying false colors; that is, flying the flag of a country other than one's own. False flag operations are not limited to war and counter-insurgency operations, and have been used in peace-time; for example during Italy's strategy of tension." ...
Build your own energy sources from scratch. http://otherpower.com/
Like everyone else on the planet. Not that it matters whether you access webmail via Linux or via Windows.
the main vector of malware coming in is via e-mail attachments, yet these guys keep clicking on them
Webmail cracked - that's almost certainly not clicking-on-attachments territory, more likely poor password choice. Access to company servers from the inside (employees collaborating with the attackers) is another possible path of attack.
signed e-mails and attachments would make reception thereof fairly safe, yet these guys have no idea about it
Works only on a node-to-node basis. If their contact doesn't have the tools, then they can't use it. Same applies to encryption obviously. Is PGP freely available in China? How long till the government detects that you are using PGP and takes you in for questioning solely based on that fact?
but then these guys probably would feign complete ignorance and amazement over the fact, that especially the totalitarian governments of the world don't exactly work with white gloves
If the Chinese government attacks western computer systems, that's news. It might require a political response, that should be in the public discussion. Regardless, it's certainly worth reporting.
Freedom of the press is vital for my freedom and for yours. I think your disdain is completely inappropriate here.