Breaking news - the Washington Post has been hacked

The Washington Post says that the email accounts of some of its journalists have been hacked.

The likely culprits? A foreign government (take your pick…)

Why would they want to do that? Because journalists are often afforded access to valuable and sensitive information, and may be in touch with human-rights activists in oppressive regimes.

According to the Wall Street Journal:

“Staffers were told the intrusions compromised journalists’ Microsoft accounts and could have granted the intruder access to work emails they sent and received… The reporters targeted include those on the national-security and economic-policy teams, including some who write about China”

But in recent years, reporters at the Post have reportedly stopped using email for their most sensitive conversations and use encrypted messaging apps like Signal instead.

Nonetheless, the Wash Post has wisely decided to force all employees to reset their login credentials.

Other newspapers can’t smirk at The Washington Post’s misfortune. As far back as 2013, Richard Murdoch claimed that China was hacking the Wall Street Journal. In the same year, The New York Times was also compromised by Chinese hackers.

Read more in the Wall Street Journal.