|
¡@
Chinese schools deny Google
cyber-attacks
AFP, BEIJING
Monday, Feb 22, 2010, Page 1
¡§The report of the ¡¥New York Times¡¦ was based simply on an IP [Internet
Protocol] address. Given the highly developed network technology today, such a
report is neither objective or balanced.¡¨¡X Shanghai Jiaotong University
spokesperson
Chinese educational institutions named in connection with cyber-attacks on
Google have denied involvement, state media said on Saturday, as differences
festered between Beijing and the Internet giant.
The New York Times reported on Thursday that the cyber-attacks aimed at Google
and dozens of other firms had been traced to Shanghai Jiaotong University and
the Lanxiang Vocational School, which the newspaper said had military backing.
The paper cited anonymous sources for the report.
Google vowed last month to stop bowing to Internet censors in China in the wake
of sophisticated cyber-attacks aimed at the US firm¡¦s source code and at Gmail
accounts of Chinese human rights activists around the world.
A spokesperson for Shanghai Jiaotong University told Xinhua news agency: ¡§We
were shocked and indignant to hear these baseless allegations, which may harm
the university¡¦s reputation.¡¨
¡§The report of the New York Times was based simply on an IP [Internet Protocol]
address. Given the highly developed network technology today, such a report is
neither objective or balanced,¡¨ the spokesperson said.
Li Zixiang, party chief at the Lanxiang Vocational School in Shandong Province,
also named in the report, said: ¡§Investigation ¡K found no trace the attacks
originated from our school.¡¨
Li denied a relationship between the school and the military and rejected links
made in the report to a computer science class taught by a Ukrainian professor.
¡§There is no Ukrainian teacher in the school and we have never employed any
foreign staff,¡¨ Li told Xinhua. ¡§The report was unfounded. Please show the
evidence.¡¨
Lanxiang teaches vocational skills such as cooking, auto repair and
hairdressing, while the computer science class offers only basic courses, Xinhua
reported.
The director of the school¡¦s general office, Zhou Hui, said 38 students had been
recruited by the military since 2006 ¡§for their talent in auto repair, cooking
and electric welding.¡¨
Following its January comments, Google has continued filtering searches in line
with Chinese law, while trying to negotiate a compromise with officials.
Google cofounder Sergey Brin said this month he hoped the Internet powerhouse
would find a way to operate in China without censoring Web search results.
¡§I¡¦m optimistic,¡¨ Brin said during an on-stage chat at the prestigious TED
Conference in Long Beach, California, on Feb. 12. ¡§I want to find a way to
really work within the Chinese system and drive more information.¡¨
¡§A lot of people think I¡¦m naive, and that may be true, but I wouldn¡¦t have
started a search engine if I wasn¡¦t naive,¡¨ he said.
Brin declined to place odds on the chances of Google working out a compromise
that would allow unfettered online searches in China, saying only that while it
wasn¡¦t likely to happen now it might ¡§in a year or two.¡¨
He defended Google¡¦s decision to launch a filtered google.cn search engine in
China in 2006, saying the company¡¦s presence in that market ¡§made a big
difference, but things started going downhill after the [Beijing] Olympics.¡¨
¡§We intend to stop censoring,¡¨ Brin said. ¡§We don¡¦t want to run a service that
is politically censored.¡¨
¡@
|
