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Google reveals Gmail
hack, says likely from China
Reuters, BEIJING and SAN FRANCISCO
Suspected Chinese hackers tried to steal the passwords of hundreds of Google
e-mail account holders, including those of senior US government officials,
Chinese activists and journalists, the Internet company said.
The claim by the world¡¦s largest Web search engine sparked an angry response
from Beijing, which said blaming China was ¡§unacceptable,¡¨ pointing to further
tensions in an already strained relationship with Google.
The perpetrators appeared to originate from Jinan, the capital of Shandong
Province, China, Google said. Jinan is home to one of six technical
reconnaissance bureaus belonging to the People¡¦s Liberation Army and a technical
college US investigators last year linked to a previous attack on Google.
Washington said it was investigating Google¡¦s claims while the FBI said it was
working with Google following the attacks ¡X the latest computer-based invasions
directed at multinational companies that have raised global alarm about Internet
security.
Andrew Davies of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, an independent
security and defense think tank, said governments needed to pay more attention
to hacking no matter where it originated from.
¡§I think there has been a certain lack of appreciation of the looming threat
around the world,¡¨ Davies said. ¡§We¡¦ve been in catch-up mode for the last couple
of years and it¡¦s been hard to wake up Western governments to the magnitude of
the threat.¡¨
The hackers recently tried to crack and monitor e-mail accounts by stealing
passwords, but Google detected and ¡§disrupted¡¨ their campaign, the company said
on its official blog. Google said it had notified the victims.
The revelation comes more than a year after Google disclosed a cyberattack on
its systems that it said it traced to China. Google partially pulled out of
China, the world¡¦s largest Internet market by users, last year after a tussle
with the government over censorship.
¡§We recently uncovered a campaign to collect user passwords, likely through
phishing,¡¨ Google said, referring to the practice where computer users are
tricked into giving up sensitive information.
It ¡§affected what seem to be the personal Gmail accounts of hundreds of users,
including among others, senior US government officials, Chinese political
activists, officials in several Asian countries (predominantly South Korea),
military personnel and journalists.¡¨
A Washington-based security expert, Mila Parkour, first reported the Gmail
attacks on her blog in February, saying they appeared to have started last year
and were invasive.
China¡¦s Foreign Ministry said it ¡§cannot accept¡¨ accusations hackers in China
tried to break into hundreds of Gmail accounts.
Google did not say the Chinese government was behind the attacks or say what
might have motivated them.
However, a former US government official who served in China said he was fairly
sure the Chinese government was responsible. He said it was a sign of Beijing¡¦s
fears that contagion from the Arab ¡§jasmine¡¨ uprisings could spread to China.
¡§I¡¦m fairly certain it¡¦s the Chinese government, and probably the PLA [People¡¦s
Liberation Army],¡¨ said the former official, who asked that his name not be
used.
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