A shadow fell across The Washington Post’s digital newsroom this past weekend as the venerable institution began investigating a cyberattack that compromised the email accounts of some of its journalists. The intrusion, discovered late Thursday, led to a swift and comprehensive reset of login credentials for all staff, a measure undertaken Friday night to secure the newspaper’s digital perimeter.
Executive editor Matt Murray detailed the incident in a memo to affected employees on Sunday, which was reviewed by Bloomberg News. The memo confirmed that a limited number of journalists’ email accounts had been impacted and stated that a forensic team was actively engaged in an investigation to uncover the extent and nature of the breach.
Initial reports of the attack emerged from the Wall Street Journal, which, citing unnamed sources, suggested the possibility of a foreign government’s involvement. The Journal’s account indicated that journalists assigned to national security and economic policy beats, particularly those covering China, appeared to be among the targeted individuals. Staffers were informed that their Microsoft accounts had been compromised, potentially exposing their sent and received emails to unauthorized access.
The Washington Post and Microsoft have not yet commented regarding the incident. This is not the first time The Washington Post has found itself in the crosshairs of cyber adversaries; the newspaper has faced a series of breaches dating back to 2011, with some past attacks attributed to Chinese groups.
Journalists, by the very nature of their work, are frequent targets for cyberattacks due to their access to sensitive information and extensive networks of contacts. The current breach at The Washington Post is believed to have primarily involved email accounts. Significantly, the Journal reported that the newspaper’s reporters typically use encrypted platforms for communications with their sources, a practice that may have limited the exposure of highly sensitive information in this latest incident.
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