Google hints at quitting China over cyber attack on e-mail accounts
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 12, 2010; 6:17 PM
Google, the world's largest Internet search engine, said Tuesday that it may pull out of China because of a sophisticated computer network attack originating in China and targeting its e-mail service.
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"We're reviewing our operations there," a company spokesperson said. "If it comes down to it, we may" leave.
Google said it had evidence to suggest that "a primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts" of Chinese human rights activists. The attack was discovered in December.
Based on its investigation to date, Google said it does not believe the attack succeeded. "Only two Gmail accounts appear to have been accessed, and that activity was limited to account information (such as the date the account was created) and subject line, rather than the content of emails themselves," the post said.
At least 20 other large companies have been similarly targeted with such attacks, Google said. The firms' industries range from finance and technology to media and chemicals.
China is among a handful of countries considered to have impressive cyber offensive capabilities, but U.S. officials have refrained from publicly accusing the country because determining with certainty who is behind an attack is quite difficult.
Attacks against China rights activists have been growing, however, and suspicion has fallen on the Beijing government or its broad army of proxies.
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