After their Yahoo accounts were hacked this week, several foreign journalists have tried unsuccessfully to get a response and explanation from Yahoo. The Washington Post blog talks to freelance journalist Kathleen McLaughlin:
The lack of information from the company has been “incredibly frustrating,” she said. It’s still unclear how the accounts were disabled, and no one has asked the Chinese government about the incidents, McLaughlin said. The government hasn’t commented either.
“You asked about response from the Chinese government, but what we really need is a response from Yahoo,” McLaughlin wrote in an e-mail exchange late Wednesday.
When asked about the episode, a spokesperson for Yahoo declined to confirm the attacks. The Silicon Valley giant said in a statement:
“Yahoo does not generally disclose information around reported breaches, but we take security very seriously and we take appropriate action in the event of any kind of breach.”
The Foreign Correspondents Club said that of the 11 confirmed cases of blocked Yahoo e-mail accounts, eight involved Beijing-based reporters and three involved journalists based in Taiwan.
