Google cyberattack from China reverberates around the world
A day after Google announced it had been the victim of a major cyberattack emanating from China, suspicion grew that the Chinese government had a role in breaching the company’s intricate defenses. Security experts pointed to the sophistication of the attack that may have encompassed more than 30 companies, and said it would require the money, expertise and time only a government or other well-funded organization would possess.
A Google spokeswoman said Wednesday that the company has not traced the attacks to official government agencies, but on Tuesday, the company threatened to pull out of China if the government continued censoring its search engine results. A source close to the company said Wednesday that after Google’s network came under a flurry of cyberattacks in mid-December, company engineers did in fact trace it to a branch of the Chinese government, or agents acting on its behalf. The attacks also targeted the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. In a subsequent investigation, Google discovered that the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists in the United States, Europe and China were being “routinely accessed” by unknown third parties.
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