The Washington Post was targeted in a recent cyberattack that targeted the email accounts of several journalists, including those covering national security and economic policy.
The attack, first reported by The Wall Street Journal over the weekend, impacted a small amount of reporters at the news outlet and has since been contained, the source said.
Staffers whose email accounts were hit by the breach were notified by Post leadership last week, which at the time told them they believed the incident was the work of a foreign government and instructed them not to discuss the incident, according to the Journal.
Per the report, the attack could have been carried out by a foreign government and specifically targeted reporters who cover China.
Washington Post Executive Editor Matt Murray informed staffers in an internal memo Sunday that there had been a “possible targeted unauthorized intrusion into our email system.”
Details of the breach were shared privately with some affected staffers in recent days, according to the Journal, which first reported the incident.
It is not yet clear how many accounts were accessed or how long the breach lasted.
Foreign hackers have targeted a string of news publications in recent years.
Following a 2013 hacking, the WSJ reported, “Chinese hackers for years have targeted major U.S. media companies with hacking that has penetrated inside newsgathering systems, several people familiar with the response to the cyberattacks said. Tapping reporters’ computers could allow Beijing to identify sources on articles and information about pending stories. Chinese authorities in the past have penalized Chinese nationals who have passed information to foreign reporters.”
The New York Times and The Washington Post were also targeted by hackers from China in 2013.
