The American media group News Corp, which notably publishes the Wall Street Journal and the British daily newspapers The Times and The Sun, said on Friday that it was the subject of a cyberattack in January which seems to have been carried out by Chinese spies.
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In a document filed with the American stock market policeman, News Corp explains that the platform of one of its third-party suppliers offering several of its media and departments technological solutions has been targeted.
"
The company is conducting an investigation to find out the circumstances of this operation and to determine its nature, scope, duration and impacts
," said the group founded by billionaire and media magnate Rupert Murdoch.
News Corp said that its financial data and those of its customers were visibly unaffected and that the attack had been brought under control.
Mandiant suspects China
Cybersecurity firm Mandiant confirmed it was retained by News Corp to shed light on the incident and clearly named China as the prime suspect.
“
Mandiant believes that the actors behind this operation have a connection with China and we believe that they are likely involved in espionage activities aimed at obtaining information for the benefit of Chinese interests
”, reacted David Wong, vice president. at Mandiant.
Washington has for years suspected China of carrying out cyberattacks against US companies, organizations or government agencies, accusations Beijing strenuously denies.
Read alsoCyberattacks: the United States and its allies will jointly condemn China's "malicious" activities
FBI Director Christopher Wray said Monday evening that his services are currently working on more than 2,000 investigations in which "
the Chinese government is trying to steal information or technology from us
" and that a new counterintelligence file involving the Chine was open on average twice a day.
The United States notably accused China of being responsible for the massive hack that targeted Microsoft's Exchange messaging services in March 2021. Beijing then denounced "
baseless
" allegations.
