A reporter for Caixin Magazine has had her Gmail account hacked. The reporter, Zhao Hejuan, covered the story of local officials in Longhui, Hunan who illegally confiscated babies who were born outside the family planning regulations. The attack on her Gmail appears to have originated in Longhui. From Caixin’s statement on the incident:
Zhao Hejuan, an investigative reporter at Caixin Media, found that her Gmail account had been logged into from IP address 220.170.192.25, which traced back to Longhui County in Hunan Province.
Zhao learned of the attacks July 21 after receiving a Gmail security alert. Caixin’s IT department later uncovered evidence that the hacks into Zhao’s account went as far back as July 19. Based on Gmail’s IP history, the hackers had logged on to Zhao’s Gmail account everyday since July 19. Zhao and Caixin’s legal affairs consultant reported the incident to district police in Beijing on July 22.
In May, Caixin published an investigative report stating that more than 10 children were seized by family planning officials in Longhui, with some illegally sent for adoption overseas. Zhao went to Longhui in May to follow up on the story, and has since published multiple articles on parents seeking to petition the child-trafficking cases, as well as reactions of the local government.
For those concerned about the safety of the Gmail accounts, Google has launched a two=factor authentication process for email. Read more here.
