Cyberattack

By Geoffrey King/CPJ Technology Program Coordinator

A rare and serious vulnerability in Apple's iOS operating system has been discovered by researchers at the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab, which today published a report detailing its findings. It is the first known remote iOS vulnerability of its kind. Disturbingly, the company behind malware designed to exploit the security flaw may have also helped target an investigative journalist in Mexico in 2015, Citizen Lab said.

Ecuadoran news websites that published corruption allegations were the target of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks on May 9, 2016, according to a joint letter Ecuadoran editors and press-freedom advocates sent to the Committee to Protect Journalists on May 13. In a DDoS attack, the attackers seek to overwhelm a website's server with rapid, repeated requests for information.

The independent Tunisian news website Inkyfada was hit with a cyberattack on April 4, 2016, hours after publishing a Panama Papers report that mentioned Tunisian politician Mohsen Marzouk, according to statements published by Inkyfada on its Facebook page. During the attack Inkyfada's website was hacked and its content manipulated, with hackers attempting to publish names not listed in the Panama Papers investigation, including former Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki, the statement said.

By Yaqiu Wang/Northeast Asia Correspondent

"I think my actions ... have harmed the national interest. What I have done was very wrong. I seriously and earnestly accept to learn a lesson and plead guilty," said Chinese journalist Gao Yu during a televised confession on the state-run channel CCTV in May 2014.

By Jessica Jerreat

During South Africa's Boer War, at the turn of the 20th century, a determined news organization relocated reporters, copy editors, and printing presses to the front line to ensure accurate reporting. In the Warsaw Ghetto, during World War II, a literal underground press, established to counter Nazi propaganda, required the nightly movement of cumbersome printing equipment to evade capture.

By Jean-Paul Marthoz/CPJ EU Correspondent

The headquarters of Le Soir in the center of Brussels, two blocks away from the Parliament, look serene in the spring sunshine. No sign of violence scars the glass and stone facade. But the leading Belgian francophone daily, the flagship of the Rossel media group, has suffered a concussion. On Sunday a wave of hacking attacks rocked the paper. At 07:00 p.m., the hottest moment of the day when articles were pouring in and had to be published on deadline, the Newsgate data center started to slow down, the Wifi was disabled, the journalists’ professional and personal emails were neutralized. The paper-- where I am a columnist--immediately took emergency measures, separating the Internet from the intranet, to counter the attack and prevent the hackers from taking over the websites.

New York, April 9, 2015--The French-language global TV network TV5Monde was disrupted for three hours on Wednesday night by hackers claiming to belong to the militant group Islamic State, according to news reports. The hackers seized control of 11 channels as well as the network's website and social media accounts, the reports said. TV5Monde restored its signal by Thursday morning, but said TV broadcasts would take longer to return to normal.

By Bob Dietz/CPJ Asia Program Coordinator

Hong Kong's pro-democracy protests are among the best covered in history. The city is saturated with print, broadcast, and social media, traveling across some of the best networks on earth. Its citizens are among the most connected in the world. And for all the media's flaws, consumers expect them to deliver.

By Tom Lowenthal/CPJ Staff Technologist

Journalists are among those most likely to face technical attempts at attack and interception. Reporting is based on discussions with sources who may want to remain out of the limelight, and news sites attract extensive readership, making them a desirable target for potential attackers. But there are simple steps to protect against the most common form of eavesdropping, and journalists should be aware of the types of technical adversaries they may face.

Bangkok, October 3, 2014--The Committee to Protect Journalists strongly condemns recent threats and cyberattacks against The Irrawaddy, an independent media group dedicated to Burma news and analysis.