New research from two Google security engineers has revealed a rise in the number of cyberattacks against journalists, with 21 of the world’s 25 top news organizations being targeted in the last year, most likely by government-sponsored hackers. While it’s true that everyone is at risk from cyberattacks, Reuters reports that the new study shows journalists are “massively over-represented” among hacker’s targets.

Researchers Shane Huntley and Morgan Marquis-Boire presented their findings at the Blackhat Conference Asia 2014 last Friday, describing a pattern of cyberattacks on journalists and news organizations that are thought to be the work of government hackers.

What’s worse is that it’s not just one government that’s responsible for this uptick in cyberattacks – rather, it appears to encompass several governments from around the world. One of the worst offenders is China, whose attacks against The New York Times and other organizations have been documented in SiliconANGLE before. Syria’s government has also been very aggressive over the last couple of years – it’s believed to sponsor the Syrian Electronic Army, which has carried out a number of high-profile attacks on organizations like Forbes and The New York Times recently. Then there’s Vietnam, which, according to Huntley and Marquis-Boire, is guilty of hacking the Associated Press as well as numerous anti-government bloggers.

“If you’re a journalist or a journalistic organisation we will see state-sponsored targeting and we see it happening regardless of region, we see it from all over the world both from where the targets are and where the targets are from,” Huntley told Reuters.

Huntley and Marquis-Boire delivered their presentation shortly after Ashkan Soltani, an independent security researcher, tweeted that nine of the world’s 25 biggest news websites use Google for their hosted email services. Soltani says that this data comes from Alexa, the web information firm. Not surprisingly, the two Google engineers declined to say how they’re able to monitor attacks against journalists, but one would imagine that this ‘inside info’ certainly helps.

Government-sponsored hackers use many tools in order to trap journalists, though ‘spear phishing’ (sending malicious links or attachments via email) and the use of ‘fake’ websites are the most popular. Huntley cited one example in which hackers believed to be working for the Chinese government sent out a fake questionnaire to staff members in order to gain access to a ‘major western news organization’, whilst noting similar tactics were used against journalists in Ethiopia and Morocco.

Unfortunately, it seems that many news organizations aren’t really aware they’re been singled-out by government agents. “A lot of news organizations are just waking up to this,” he warned, adding that: “We’re seeing a definite upswing of individual journalists who recognize this is important.”

That’s not to say anyone will be surprised that attacks on journalists are increasing. Intelligence agencies and news organizations have long has a mutual fascination with one another. After all, these two entities understand better than anyone else the concept that ‘information is power’, and both possess ample quantities of it – as well was an insatiable thirst for more.

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