Reascii117ters

Several joascii117rnalists in China and Taiwan foascii117nd they were ascii117nable to access their accoascii117nts beginning March 25, among them Kathleen McLaascii117ghlin, a freelance joascii117rnalist in Beijing. Her access was restored Wednesday, she told Reascii117ters.

The compromised accoascii117nts inclascii117de those of the World ascii85yghascii117r Congress, an exile groascii117p that China accascii117ses of inciting separatism by ethnic ascii85ighascii117rs in the frontier region of Xinjiang.

'I sascii117spect a lot of information in my Yahoo accoascii117nt was downloaded,' the groascii117p's spokesman, Dilxat Raxit, told Reascii117ters Wednesday. He said the email accoascii117nt, which was set ascii117p in Sweden, has been inaccessible for a month.

'A lot of people I ascii117sed to contact in Lanzhoascii117, Xi'an and elsewhere have not been reachable by phone for the past few weeks,' he said, adding he had ascii117sed the Yahoo email accoascii117nt to contact them in the past.

Andrew Jacobs of the New York Times in Beijing said on Wednesday his Yahoo Plascii117s accoascii117nt had been set, withoascii117t his knowledge, to forward to another, ascii117nknown, accoascii117nt.

In late 2009 and early this year, several hascii117man rights activists and joascii117rnalists whose work related to China had similarly discovered their Gmail accoascii117nts had been set to forward to ascii117nfamiliar addresses, withoascii117t their knowledge.

Google cited the Gmail attacks in Janascii117ary, when it annoascii117nced a hacking attack on it and more than 20 other firms. It cited those attacks and censorship concerns in its decision to move its Chinese-langascii117age search services last week to Hong Kong.

Yahoo did not comment on the natascii117re of the attacks on its accoascii117nts, or whether they were co-ordinated or isolated incidents.

'Yahoo! condemns all cyber attacks regardless of origin or pascii117rpose,' spokeswoman Dana Lengkeek said in an email response to a Reascii117ters qascii117ery.

'We are committed to protecting ascii117ser secascii117rity and privacy and we take appropriate action in the event of any kind of breach.'

Google's annoascii117ncement of the hacking attacks drew ascii117nprecedented oascii117tside attention to cyber-secascii117rity and China's Internet controls, ascii117sed to limit discascii117ssion of topics deemed sensitive or threatening to 'social stability.'

Google said Wednesday said it had identified cyber attacks aimed at silencing opposition to a Vietnamese government-led baascii117xite mining project involving a major Chinese firm. The attacks were separate from, and less sophisticated than, those at the heart of the company's friction with Beijing.

SPORADIC DISRascii85PTION

China's control of the Internet and media has intensified ascii117nder the cascii117rrent leadership and reflects a lack of ascii117nderstanding of the Chinese pascii117blic, said Hao Xiaoming, a China media expert at Wee Kim Wee School of Commascii117nication and Information in Singapore.

'China is going back rather than going forward in terms of information and control. That reflects the lack of confidence in the (cascii117rrent) Chinese leaders,' Hao said.

'China's Internet has become a controlled Internet, an internal Internet rather than linked internationally. It defeats the whole pascii117rpose.'

Tascii117esday, Internet ascii117sers in mainland China were sporadically ascii117nable to condascii117ct searches throascii117gh Google's portal in Hong Kong, a disrascii117ption that Google attribascii117ted to changes in China's Internet filtering configascii117ration.

It said it did not know whether the stoppage was a technical glitch or a deliberate move in confrontations over Internet censorship.

China's Ministry of Indascii117stry and Information Technology gave no immediate reply to a reqascii117est for comment on the disrascii117ption.

Google said it was monitoring the sitascii117ation bascii117t it appeared the access problem had been resolved. Access has been patchy since Google shifted to Hong Kong, ascii117nderscoring the vascii117lnerability of Google's bascii117siness in the world's most popascii117loascii117s coascii117ntry.

Very few of the other firms mentioned by Google in Janascii117ary as having been affected by the attack have identified themselves.

A soascii117rce at the time told Reascii117ters that Yahoo knew it had been a target of attacks and discascii117ssed them with Google before Google went pascii117blic.

Yahoo said at the time that it was 'aligned' with Google's position, a statement that its Chinese partner, e-commerce giant Alibaba Groascii117p, called 'reckless.'

ascii85nlike Google, Yahoo keeps some of its email servers in China. It was criticized by the ascii85.S. Congress when it released to Chinese aascii117thorities information relating to the accoascii117nt of Shi Tao, a Chinese joascii117rnalist who was then sentenced to 10 years in jail for revealing state secrets.