US media and publishing giant News Corp revealed today that it had been the target of a "persistent" cyberattack.
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The attack, discovered sometime this January, reportedly allowed hackers to access emails and documents of some News Corp employees, including journalists.
The News Corp group includes Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, New York Post and News UK.
How the hack was discovered
In a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing seen by BleepingComputer today, News Corp said one of its systems had suffered "persistent cyberattack activity.".
The attack was discovered in January, but the news group today publicly disclosed the attack, albeit quietly through a filing rather than a data breach.
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Preliminary findings indicate that the attackers are linked to a "foreign government" and that data exfiltration did indeed occur.
While there is no indication so far that any customer or financial data held by the affected company has been compromised, News Corp has hired an external cybersecurity firm, Mandiant, to assist in the investigation.
Possibly linked to China-backed threat actors
The WSJ, which first reported the incident, said the breach affected major news businesses in the conglomerate, including The Wall Street Journal, the New York Post and the UK news company.
According to the WSJ report, the incident allowed hackers to access the emails and documents of some News Corp employees, including journalists.
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A statement provided by Mandiant explains that the cyberattack is likely linked to Chinese-backed threat actors.
Information source: bleepingcomputer.com
