Google: Gmail Hack Likely From China Cyberattackers

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Google Inc revealed on Wednesday that unknown hackers likely originating from central China tried to hack into the Gmail accounts of hundreds of users, including senior U.S. government officials, Chinese activists and journalists.

The world's largest Internet company said on its official blog that the hackers, who appeared to originate from Jinan, China, recently tried to crack and monitor email accounts by stealing passwords, but Google detected and "disrupted" the campaign.

It notified the victims and relevant governments, Google added in its blog post.

Google shares slipped finished 0.7 percent lower at $525.60.

"We recently uncovered a campaign to collect user passwords, likely through phishing," Google said on its official blog.

"This campaign, which appears to originate from Jinan, China, affected what seem to be the personal Gmail accounts of hundreds of users, including among others, senior U.S. government officials, Chinese political activists, officials in several Asian countries (predominantly South Korea), military personnel and journalists."

The United States has warned that a cyber attack -- presumably if it is devastating enough -- could result in real-world military retaliation, although analysts say it could be difficult to detect its origin with full accuracy.

The attacks are the latest computer-based invasions directed at western companies and come a year after Internet giant Google and numerous companies were targeted by hackers traced to China.

That previous incident triggered a highly-charged debate over the country's censorship and rigid control of the Internet. Google eventually all but pulled out of China, despite the market's massive growth opportunity.

(Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic and Edwin Chan; editing by Andre Grenon)

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions

Comments

[vitrioleumjelly]

08:15 AM on 06/10/2011

China doesn't want real freedom of the internet. I say just block them from it. They can go back to the dark ages when they were cut off from the rest of the world. I'm sick of scammers spammers and hackers.

[Ning Rowley]

09:05 AM on 06/08/2011

only "hundreds" of g-mail? Damed, this news of "hacking" google doesn't make any sense. So, what are you trying to do bring down the WWW economy and blame it on China? And put it into these simpletons brain to "nuke China" campaign? Google is one of largest g-mail service there is in cyber market and you just have to boil it down to "a hundred g-mails" that specified the group of "senior goverment official" What a Crock! Talk about abusive uses of cable.

[Ning Rowley]

08:59 AM on 06/08/2011

It's a horse-packey.

[ReedYoung]

01:38 PM on 06/05/2011

That's it, nuke China. They steal our jobs and counterfeit our software, making it more expensive for us, and now they're trying to steal our passwords to our personal e-mail? I'm fed up with that country.

Seriously, remove their "favored nation trading status" and make a "five year plan" for a full embargo. China is worthless. Trade with China is the most harmful thing to the U.S. economy since Milton Friedman.

[Ning Rowley]

08:52 AM on 06/08/2011

I agree, but who is Milton Friedman?

[ReedYoung]

11:12 AM on 06/08/2011

He was a fascist economist, and economic advisor to Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. His "ideas" about unregulated "economic freedom" are known as the "Chicago school" of economics by its fans, or "market fundamentalism" by people like me, who can see the need of regulation.

[ReedYoung]

11:13 AM on 06/08/2011

People like Scott Walker and Paul Ryan, and the "downsize government" movement in general, are based on Milton Friedman's "ideas" about the magic powers of laissez-faire economics.

[World Citizen]

03:15 AM on 06/04/2011

Is there anyway to know if one's gmail is in the list of these accounts that were hacked?

[ReedYoung]

01:40 PM on 06/05/2011

Does your password still work? If so, change it to a long random sequence that's hard for cracking algorithms to guess. Of course, don't forget to make a note of what that sequence is! The best is to store it on your computer, encrypted, so that you can copy and paste it but nobody else can guess it.
http://www.schneier.com/passsafe.html

[globality]

09:49 AM on 06/03/2011

Why are "senior Gov officials" allowed to have gmail accounts ?

[Ning Rowley]

08:53 AM on 06/08/2011

Why not? The're just like everyone else in the world.

[Charles Keledjian]

08:14 AM on 06/03/2011

I'm no friend of Google (because i rather use products from a company for which I am the customer and not the product), but if the stealing of passwords is due to phishing, then it is not a security breach due to bad network design and/or IT policies, such as the case of Sony. Even the most secure network can be 'phished'. Simply send an email with the logo of the company and a fake link and convince people out there to give you the password, when they clearly can see that the page is not in the company's domain. It is similar to someone putting a fake ATM machine and have people insert the card and read the account and PIN.

[JackTheSkipper]

10:01 PM on 06/03/2011

Your are assuming the people who respond to the Nigerian scam emails know what phising and domain are.

[ReedYoung]

01:42 PM on 06/05/2011

True. And that's probably why their stock only lost 0.7% -- few investors in Google fail to understand that phishing is not like cracking.

[themodernleader]

07:05 AM on 06/03/2011

This failed falsely called " free trade" world trade system is a mercantelistic system that has placed our nation in mortal danger. We must realize that we are surrounded by enemies bent on destroying us as the Romans burned Carthage to the ground and killed, enslaved and scattered her citizens to all parts of the earth. Assuming that it can not happen again is self-delusion. We must reawaken with new leadership dedicated to saving our nation under its Republican form of Constitutional government.

[Ning Rowley]

08:58 AM on 06/08/2011

dude you're on the wrong thread subject.

[jayes]

03:53 AM on 06/03/2011

"The United States has warned that a cyber attack -- presumably if it is devastating enough -- could result in real-world military retaliation, although analysts say it could be difficult to detect its origin with full accuracy."

B-I-N-G-O, and .. was his name-o.

[max08]

03:49 AM on 06/03/2011

Google is now "Evil." It is tracking you and your emails. Watch Eli Pariser at TED for the info.

[leonel]

01:25 AM on 06/03/2011

I know the feeling, I think I may have caught somebody trying to get my credit card number.

Hackers are high-tech pickpockets. What will need to be done is just develop redundancy in protection. Like not having money that can be picked in your pocket. Every country is trying to get ahead so, like with pickpockets, only naive individuals will generally become victims.

[Cool Amp]

12:15 AM on 06/03/2011

China blamed for Google hacking:http://www.tekbuz.com/china-blamed-for-google-hacking/89217

[mweberhbr]

11:49 PM on 06/02/2011

here is weiners defense oh its the china tryin to ruin my great rep!!!!!! NOT

[SocratesSiddhartha]

03:11 AM on 06/03/2011

You really need a weiner break...lol.

[crystalsis]

11:19 PM on 06/02/2011

黑客技术哪家强，中国山东找蓝翔>.

[RudyHaugeneder]

05:43 PM on 06/02/2011

Google Inc is a corporate superpower that is seeking ways to extend its already immense control into regions that balk at turning over control — like China.
When Google indirectly asks the American government to act on its behalf after the company says security had been compromised by a major hacker attack targeting U.S. officials, and claiming that China did it, one has to be incredibly suspicious of the source — Google Inc — and who actually orchestrated the attack which, it appears, did no major damage in “any” way.
It is time for Google Inc to be seen as the monopoly that it is, and is broken into several independent companies with different owners.