Google may pull out of China after cyber attack on G-mail accounts

Google indicated on Tuesday that it is considering putting an end to its operations in China after it discovered that the e-mail accounts of human rights activists had been breached. Google's blog post today stated that it came under cyber attack and the attack was aimed at Chinese dissidents' Gmail accounts.

Google's blog was a wealth of information about the breach of the e-mail accounts. Posted at 3pm PT by David Drummond, SVP, Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer at Google, the blog post gave details about the issues with the cyber attack.

"First, this attack was not just on Google. As part of our investigation we have discovered that at least twenty other large companies from a wide range of businesses--including the Internet, finance, technology, media and chemical sectors--have been similarly targeted. We are currently in the process of notifying those companies, and we are also working with the relevant U.S. authorities."

Apparently it was just basic account information that was accessed from the two email accounts that were involved in the cyber attack. This information was said to be just the date the account was created and the subject line but not the email content.

Additional information from today's Google blog indicates that, "the accounts of dozens of U.S.-, China- and Europe-based Gmail users who are advocates of human rights in China appear to have been routinely accessed by third parties. These accounts have not been accessed through any security breach at Google, but most likely via phishing scams or malware placed on the users' computers."

Google.cn was launched in January 2006 to give increased access to information for people in China. At that time, Google stated, "we will carefully monitor conditions in China, including new laws and other restrictions on our services. If we determine that we are unable to achieve the objectives outlined we will not hesitate to reconsider our approach to China."

Today's information about the e-mail accounts that were breached is giving Google second thoughts about keeping their operations in China. The blog post indicated that Google will review business operations with China before making any final decisions as they have worked very hard to make Google a success in China.

Written by Cheryl Phillips
HULIQ.com

source: Google blog

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