Three foreign journalists and one analyst, all of whom focus on China, have recently reported problems with Yahoo e-mail accounts, at least two of which were confirmed hacking attempts. The source of the problems isn't known, but all four report hearing of similar problems from colleagues that report primarily on China-related issues.

One of the journalists, Clifford Coonan, received a notice that there was an "issue" with his account when attempting to log in Tuesday, according to an Associated Press report. Yahoo confirmed there were suspicious login attempts on his account. Coonan serves as a China correspondent for both The Independent and the Irish Times.

Two other unnamed journalists told AP that they had received similar notices in January and February respectively. A financial analyst that focuses on China confirmed with Yahoo that his account had been hacked. For its part, Yahoo has said that it will "take appropriate action" for any confirmed hacking attempts.

Coonan speculated that he might merely be the target of broad hacking attempts, but worried of the implications if foreigners with ties to China were being specifically targeted. "It's obviously annoying, but if it's just journalists and academics, that's scary," he told AP.

The problems happened shortly after Google complained of hacking attempts originating from China and moved to end its practice of censoring search results in China.