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The Canadian government was hit by an unprecedented cyber attack from Chinese-based computers last month that penetrated two key economic ministries, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp reported yesterday.
The CBC cited sources as saying the hackers broke into computer systems at the Finance Department and Treasury Board. Once the attack was detected, Internet access in both ministries was cut off.
The Finance Department is preparing the federal budget, which will be delivered next month.
The CBC said the hackers had apparently managed to take control of computers in the offices of senior government executives as part of a scheme to steal the passwords that unlock entire government data systems.
A spokesman for Treasury Board Minister Stockwell Day said officials had detected an unauthorised attempt to access the ministry’s computer networks.
“There are no indications that any data relating to Canadians was compromised,” he said in an e-mail. He did not say whether the attacks had been traced back to Chinese servers, as the CBC reported.
No one from the office of Finance Minister Jim Flaherty responded to a request for comment.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu denied there was a China link to the hacking.
“What you mentioned is purely fictitious and has an ulterior motive,” he told a regular news briefing in Beijing when asked about the accusations.
“China attaches great importance to computer security and consistently opposes and cracks down on hacking activities according to relative laws and regulations,” Ma added. “Hacking is an international problem and China is affected also.”
Canada’s spy service complains regularly about what it says is industrial espionage by China and other states.
US cables released by WikiLeaks show diplomats blaming China for hacking into Google systems that prompted the Internet giant to pull back from mainland China.
In 2009, The Wall Street Journal said cyber spies who appeared to be based in China had breached the Pentagon’s Joint Strike Fighter project.
The CBC story comes at an awkward time for Canada’s minority Conservative government, which has markedly toned down its criticism of China’s human rights record as it tries to boost bilateral trade ties.
News that former Alaska governor Sarah Palin is to be a contributor to the Fox News Channel is widely discussed in the US media, largely for what it might say about the beaten Republican vice-presidential candidate's hopes for a shot at the presidency in 2012.
For ABC News' Rick Klein the move "appears to be a step away from elected office".
"While the Fox job will leave room for other pursuits, it's also the latest sign that Palin... is looking for ways to build upon her political brand in ways that don't necessarily include a run for the presidency in 2012.
"Though terms of the Fox deal have not been made public, this plus her quick authorship of a bestselling memoir suggest that Palin's attention has turned to her own finances since leaving public life."
CNN's Ed Hornick agrees , suggesting Ms Palin is sending a "clear message" that she is "unlikely to run" in 2012.
Hornick quotes Democratic strategist and CNN contributor Paul Begala saying the same, while adding a couple of barbs: "I do think maybe it suggests, sadly for Democrats, that she might not be running... Let's first hope for [Fox News President] Roger Ailes' sake that she doesn't quit that job the way she quit her job as governor of Alaska."
But Howard Kurtz, in the Washington Post, notes that Ms Palin, "who has been broadcasting her political views on her Facebook page, has just acquired a far more potent media megaphone".
"Out-of-work politicians are increasingly using television and radio to stay on the political radar and keep their options open, which is one reason that former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, an also-ran in the 2008 White House race and possible 2012 contender, is now hosting a weekend show, also on Fox," Kurtz adds.
The "megaphone" metaphor is also used by Matea Gold and Mark Barabak in the LA Times , who note that "Fox News gets a high-profile figure whose pronouncements on issues such as healthcare reform have helped drive contentious partisan debate".
Political analyst Darrell West tells the Times that it will be hard for Ms Palin to use the job with Fox News - a channel which claims neutrality but is widely seen as having a conservative bias - to broaden her political base.
But Republican strategist David Carney sees her limited role at the channel as a sensible move, adding that it is "probably safer for keeping her presidential possibilities open than a daily show where she'd have to come up with something innovative and entertaining and provocative for 42 minutes, five days a week".
'Ashamed and sickened'
Steve Steckler, a contributor to Politico.com's Arena section, hopes to sees Ms Palin placed "in regular on-air debates with well-armed adversaries rather than just serving up [Glenn] Beck-like monologues".
"If it is the latter, then write her off as a serious future political contender, since she won't have demonstrated that she has overcome her most relevant weaknesses as a candidate," Steckler adds.
In the US edition of FT.com, Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson and Edward Luce suggest that the deal has "revved up" Ms Palin's presidential hopes.
But they also note that her appointment came a day after Matthew Freud, son-in-law of News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch, denounced Roger Ailes, the chairman and chief executive of Fox News.
Freud told the New York Times he was "ashamed and sickened by Roger Ailes's horrendous and sustained disregard of the journalistic standards that News Corporation, its founder and every other global media business aspires to".
Media U-turn?
In an article titled "Fox's Newest Star, Sarah Palin, May Be a Bit Dim", The Nation's John Nichols focuses on a new book of the 2008 presidential election, Game Change, by reporters John Heilemann and Mark Halperin.
In the book, and in a CBS "60 Minutes" interview , 2008 Republican presidential nominee John McCain's senior adviser, Steve Schmidt, describes Palin as a stunningly inept and ill-prepared contender for the vice presidency.
Meanwhile, Time.com provides a photo gallery detailing Ms Palin's life since the 2008 US presidential election.
And on the Atlantic's website, Max Fisher has compiled a selection of previous Palin appearances on Fox News.
"Whether you're a Palin fan warming up the DVR or a Palin skeptic discovering another reason to tune out Fox News, here's what you may have to look forward to when Palin graces your set," Fisher writes.
Finally, Erika Bolstad in Alaska's Anchorage Daily News notes: "Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin will join Fox News as a contributor, a job that establishes her as an official member of the mainstream media she lambasted in her own bestselling memoir as 'worthless as a source of factual information anymore'."
