David Neal, V3.co.uk, Wednesday 31 March 2010 at 12:49:00
Beijing-based press agency says eight journalists’ email accounts have been
hacked
The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China (FCCC) today claimed that a number
of its members have had their Yahoo email accounts hacked and tampered with.
The Beijing-based press association said eight journalists have had their
email accounts hacked, including one that had a forwarding address added to his
account settings.
We approached Yahoo in the UK for a comment, but so far it has not responded.
Nor, it appears, has it responded to calls from the FCCC for clarification.
“Yahoo has not answered the FCCC’s questions about the attacks, nor has it
told individual email users how the accounts were accessed. Password security
and malware are ongoing concerns, but it’s unclear whether they are related to
this case,” the FCCC said in a statement on its web site.
Until more clarification is provided, the FCCC is recommending that its users
take care whenever they use email, particularly if the content is sensitive, and
particularly if they use Yahoo Mail.
It said users should check their account settings to make sure that no
forwarding addresses have been added, and change their passwords frequently.
The agency’s warning ends by reminding users that email “does not appear to
be secure in China, and that alternate means of arranging interviews and
conducting other sensitive business are often preferable”.
This is not the first time that email has been tampered with in China. Google
issued a similar warning to users after some of its mail accounts were hacked in
January.
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