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.
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"
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.