Yahoo emails breached again while Guardian victim of Syrian hackers

Yahoo email accounts compromised by Russian hacker while attacks on the press continue to rise

Yahoo email accounts have been hacked for the second time in recent months, leading to questions about whether the world's third largest email provider can protect its users from cyber criminals.

Channel 4 News reported that Yahoo users are still finding their accounts compromised by hackers, using the same technique that was being deployed in March.

Back then hackers were found to be logging in to an email account through mobile devices around the world. The same account was then accessed via a web browser in the same region, and contacts emailed spam messages containing links to a financial scam site.

According to Channel 4 News, the hacker is based in Russia and has a history of similar cyber crimes. In response to the reported security breaches, Yahoo released the same statement that it did in March:

"We take data protection very seriously and are currently investigating reports that some Yahoo Mail accounts may have been compromised. As part of normal account security processes, if we detect suspicious activity we act to secure the account and prompt users to change their passwords."

The firm has declined to comment on the subject that security of Yahoo email accounts continues to be bypassed.

The Guardian has also fallen victim to cyber-attacks, this time from the pro-Assad Syrian Electronic Army. Eleven Guardian-related Twitter accounts were compromised by the hack, which saw background profile images changed to pro-Assad imagery.

At the time of writing, many of the accounts, including @GuardianTravel and @GuardianBooks remain out of action. The accounts were reportedly breached through the use of advanced phishing attacks in a similar fashion to recent attacks on Associated Press.

Media firms are increasingly finding themselves under attack from cyber criminals, with The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times being hacked earlier this year. Much of the blame for the hacking is attributed to China, something the country firmly denies.

In February, advocacy group The Committee to Protect Journalists warned that cyber criminals are increasingly targeting the press.