Foreign correspondents website shut down in China

The Foreign Correspondents Club of China said that it pulled the switch on its website after a flurry of attacks by online hackers, according to a recent report in the Independent.

The website shutdown comes days after it was discovered that some foreign journalists covering China had their Yahoo email accounts tampered with and locked down by hackers, the report says.

The correspondents organization says it tracked the online assault to IP addresses in China and the U.S. However, the group adds that they have no idea where the attacks are coming from because hackers are known to take over computers from distant locations.

"We do not know who is behind the attacks or what their motivation is", says the club's board. Although the group says they are unaware of the assailant, the attacks have been "persistent".

The website hack was the latest in a row between U.S. internet and news providers and nationalistic Chinese computer hackers. Google recently decided to move its Chinese-language search services out of the country after it complained about cyber attacks coming from China against the company and its Gmail users.

Members of the Chinese government say they are not involved in the hacking efforts but condemn them, according to a Reuters report.