Report: Google China Hack Might Be Inside Job
Washington sends "diplomatic note" to China asking for an explanation on Google hacking incident.
As the topic of Google and China litter the headlines, we continually wonder whether or not the search giant will continue business in the censorship-filled country. But before Google can go any further, it needs to investigate what happened when it had its networks attacked by hackers.
New wire Reuters today published a story that cites its own sources as saying that the hacking of the networks may have been an inside job.
"The sources, who are familiar with the situation, told Reuters that the attack, which targeted people who have access to specific parts of Google networks, may have been facilitated by people working in Google China's office."
Security analysts also told Reuters that the malicious software used in the hack was a trojan called Hydraq.
Perhaps even more interesting from the story is that it notes: "Washington said it was issuing a diplomatic note to China formally requesting an explanation for the attacks."
Just last week, U.S. Ambassador to China, Jon Huntsman, said that the U.S. government will be staying out of any negotiations that Google may have with China following the hacking incident.

@kyeana - indeed!
Look. I'm not totally against Google but does anyone here see the irony??
+1
Yes, but the methods used to obtain said information is slightly different. One is by tracking what users type into a text box, another is illegally gaining access to a secured network through security flaws. I do agree it's slightly ironic, but google doesn't 'spy', it just records available data. The same thing that many other companies do, collect data from clients to see what their typical habbits are. At least google is pretty straight forward about it. Do you have any clues on how many ways your bank watches your transactions? Credit card purchases (and i'm not just talking about the credit bureau's), etc. There are more things to be worried about than google remembering that you searched for pink slippers 3 times from the same IP address.
That's an apologist statement and not a very convincing one, either. Your use of the words "spy" and "snoop" are bogus. Users freely and willingly provide Google (and every other search engine) this data and Google only saves the IP-less data which is perfectly legal.
There's no irony here, just a very thin gruel of an argument, imo.
the hacks were not targeted at "google" they were targeted at Chinese human rights activists using google accounts.
No one is "spys (hacks) to find out about Google" as you put it.
FROM ITS PERSPECTIVE - Asian country is snubbed repeatedly, its actions to imitate certain imperialist Western actions are soundly denounced by what it sees as hypocritical Western powers. Western powers arrogantly devalue its economic progress, impede its ability to access needed resources and act generally in a superior manner. Asian country tries to make its irritation known and the exchange of insults and warnings ramp up the tension.
Western powers arrogantly neglect their own defense and the anger increases until Asian power sees an opening to force Western powers to back down and recognize Asian nation's ascendancy.
Questions:
Am I talking about Imperial Japan circa 1941 or formerly communist People's Republic of China circa 2010? Does anyone see the parallels? What will Pearl Harbor look like this time around?
The Chinese military have said repeatedly they've learned the lessons of Japan's mistakes and they won't leave us able to come back if they have to knock us down.
Think about it.
Absolutely.
They dropped two nuclear bombs, invaded Iraq two times, Serbia, Afghanistan, they threaten Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, they have military bases all around the globe, they support war criminals like Saakashvili and their military expenditure account for 40% of the military expenditure of all countries of the world. Ohh wait... that's not Chinese "Commies"! That's US imperial war-mongers!
People who live in glass houses should not throw stones...
Formerly communist? Really? You do mean 'currently', yes?
Yes this specific incident wasn't spying on Google itself but the fact that they were successful at the hack they did shows that the Chinese spies have successfully spied enough to know how Google works in great detail. They have been spying on Google for years and now we see the results. They can spy on any Google customer at will. They have probably been spying on all Google executives and key employees. They probably have the keys to raid any other Google operation world wide now. Google likely needs to rewrite their security world wide. There is likely more to this then they are saying. Most likely lots of Western spies and Human Rights proponents in China are going to the torture chambers and firing squads as we speak. People forget what kinds of people are in the leadership of this country. They will anyone who gets in their way and there are no legal protections nor Bill of Rights to defend any of their victims.
PS - Damn commies.
This is China... Someone will have two large nasty guys with gloves showing up at their door in the middle of the night to toss you out the window.