Tibet dissident writer under cyber-attack

A Beijing-based Tibetan dissident writer who has been writing about the unrest there has come under cyber-attack to silence her, and possibly implicate her associates, her husband and activists said on Wednesday.

Hackers stole Woeser's Skype identity on Tuesday and impersonated her in instant message exchanges with her Skype contacts, apparently to trick her 170-odd contacts into revealing politically sensitive information which could then be used to trump up charges against them, Wang Lixiong told Reuters.

"It's a trap ... It's a big threat to Woeser, but it's an ever bigger threat to her friends," Wang, author of the 1990s bestseller "Yellow Peril," said by telephone.

Skype, which allows users to make telephone calls over the Internet from their computers to other Skype users free of charge, is popular among Chinese dissidents because they believe such calls cannot be monitored by the intelligence apparatus.

"My password has been changed and I can no longer log in ... The hijacker has begun to make contact with people in my account," Woeser said in a statement.

Woeser, 41, who uses the name "Degewa" on Skype, has been under intermittent police surveillance since rioting erupted in the predominantly Buddhist region of Tibet in March.

Beijing police have warned Woeser to stop writing about Tibet. Her books are banned in China.

Kate Woznow, campaigns director of New York-based Students for a Free Tibet, described Woeser as a "lone voice" among Tibetans in China reporting on recent protests.

Hackers also hijacked Woeser's blog http://woeser.middle-way.net/, removed its content and left an animation of China's five-star national flag fluttering below the headline: "Long Live the People's Republic of China! Down with all Tibetan independence elements!!!"