Washington Post probes hack of journalist email accounts

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The Washington Post is investigating a cyber attack on the email accounts of some journalists, prompting the newspaper to beef up its online security.

The intrusion was discovered late Thursday and the company carried out a forced reset of login credentials for all staff the following night, according to a memo sent by Executive Editor Matt Murray to affected employees on Sunday. The memo, reviewed by Bloomberg News, said the attack affected a limited number of email accounts of journalists and a forensic team had been brought in to investigate.

The attack was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, which cited unidentified sources as saying the hack was potentially the work of a foreign government. The report said journalists on the national security and economic policy teams, including those covering China, had been targeted. Staffers were told their Microsoft accounts had been compromised, possibly granting access to emails they had sent and received, it added.

The Washington Post and Microsoft did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The newspaper was previously targeted by hackers in a series of breaches dating back to 2011, some of which were blamed on Chinese groups.

Journalists are frequent targets of cyber attacks, given their access to sensitive information and broad networks of contacts. The Washington Post breach was thought to only involve emails and its reporters typically use encrypted platforms for conversations with sources, the Journal reported.