Google researchers claim journalists and news organisations to be the target of state-sponsored hacking attacks with 21 of the top 25 news organisations having been attacked recently.
Discussing the research paper at the Black Hat hackers conference in Singapore on Friday, Google researchers Shane Huntley and Morgan Marquis-Boire said that journalists are “massively over-represented” as targets of phishing attacks delivered by email.
“If you are a journalist or journalistic organisation we will see state-sponsored targeting,” Shane Huntley told Reuters. “We see it happening regardless of religion, we see it from all over the world, both where the targets are and where the targets are from.”
Marquis-Boire said that among the 21 attacks, many went unannounced to the public, including the breach of security of a major Western news organisation using a fake questionnaire emailed to an employee by Chinese hackers. The researchers declined to identify the organization.
Shane Huntley also noted that attacks aren’t just limited to major news organisations as smaller news organisations, citizen journalists and bloggers have also been targeted.
The researchers refused to detail on how Google monitors attacks, but confirmed that Google “tracks the state actors that attack our users.”
Marquis-Boire explained that new organisations, compared to major businesses, recognize threat and take action at a slower rate.
“This is the tip of the iceberg,” Marquis-Boire said. “A lot of news organisations are just waking up to this.”
He also added “We’re seeing a definite upswing of individual journalists who recognize this is important.”
