First, this attack was not just on Google....Also, this is a direction from Google execs in the US, not from employees who run Google.cn
Second, we have evidence to suggest that a primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists.....
Third, as part of this investigation but independent of the attack on Google, we have discovered that the accounts of dozens of U.S.-, China- and Europe-based Gmail users who are advocates of human rights in China appear to have been routinely accessed by third parties.....
We have taken the unusual step of sharing information about these attacks with a broad audience not just because of the security and human rights implications of what we have unearthed, but also because this information goes to the heart of a much bigger global debate about freedom of speech.....
... We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.
A United States expert on cyber warfare said that 34 companies were targeted, most of them high-technology companies in Silicon Valley. The attacks came from Taiwanese Internet addresses, according to James Mulvenon, an expert on Chinese cyberwarfare capabilities.posted by jenkinsEar at 4:57 PM on January 12, 2010 [4 favorites]
Mr. Mulvenon said that the stolen documents were sent electronically to a server controlled by Rackspace, based in San Antonio.
“For Google to pull up stakes and basically pull out China, the attack must have been large in scope and very penetrating,” Mr. Mulvenon said. “This attack highlights the fact that cyberwarfare has basically gone to the next level.”
This was not an assault on cloud computing. It was an attack on the technology infrastructure of major corporations in sectors as diverse as finance, technology, media, and chemical. The route the attackers used was malicious software used to infect personal computers. Any computer connected to the Internet can fall victim to such attacks. While some intellectual property on our corporate network was compromised, we believe our customer cloud-based data remains secure.posted by jenkinsEar at 5:20 PM on January 12, 2010 [3 favorites]
It was an attack on the technology infrastructure of major corporations in sectors as diverse as finance, technology, media, and chemical.posted by amuseDetachment at 5:22 PM on January 12, 2010
How do you say "fuck this shit" in Mandarin?Something like Gan zhe shi or Da zhe shi, I think? The word for "shit" is 屎
Google Translate says it's 他妈的这狗屎 (tā mā de zhè gǒu shǐ). But when I translate it back, it says it means "Damn that dog feces". Not literally right, but the spirit's in the right place."Ta Ma de" mean's "his mother's" Maybe that's an idiom for "damn" or something. But "Gan" is usually what people say for "fuck"... I think. It's not a swearword, though.
It's already started.If you search for the the name in Chinese you do get different results. But that's mostly because Tiananmen square is just a tourist attraction for most people.
So, were Gmail accounts hacked through Google internally somehow? Or were their separate attacks on gmail and on google itself?It sounds like they failed, but managed to individually hack a few accounts by sending Trojans or something. There was a post on metafilter by someone working on human rights on China, talking about how they would constantly get infected PDFs and stuff.
GOOG is down 10 points in after-hours tradingGoogle is down $6.68, out of almost $600. That's about 1.13%. They were down $10 over the day, and the market was down across the board.
And I definitely don't understand why turning off the censorship helps prevent further attacks on the activists or any other party.It sounds like it's a big "fuck you" on the way out the door. Very "un-corporate" behavior. Maybe they just want to embarrass their competitors.
Because it isn't a perfect world and many people trust Google.People may trust google, but most people don't trust IP-only verification. I'm saying the idea that someone is "spoofing google's IP to get source code" makes no sense whatsoever. Even if someone was using AppEngine (Google's cloud computing product) spoofing their IP wouldn't get you anything
We need to crank up another Bletchley Park type deal and starting getting it awn with the Chinese propeller heads.They're too busy looking for turrists.
Last I heard, interns were making $34 an hour there.A lot of people say Google pays less then other tech companies (for real jobs), because they think working for Google is it's own reward. The IPO was a long time ago and I've heard this recently.
Google is a uniquely important company for civil liberties. They demand special scrutiny that they protect users. So please, please don't confuse the discussion with unsupported attacks on their record. Examine what we know.Well look, we don't know that the CIA has any operatives who have infiltrated Al-Quaeda, but it would be insane to think they haven't tired. It's obviously true that the U.S. tried to get the search data in 2006, what are the chances that they gave up after that? I'd say pretty low, and it's not really in Google's interest to fight them every step of the way. They're a publicly traded company, and one subject to anti-trust regulation.
Awesome! If China doesn't let Google operate without censorship, then I suggest lobbying to block Baidu's DNS entry in western countries.I don't think the answer to censorship is more censorship, or that Baidu particularly cares one way or the other.posted by delmoi at 8:38 PM on January 12, 2010 [1 favorite]
In such a conflict, there may also be some collateral damage. I'm thinking in particular of Android. Android handset makers may find their supply lines disrupted if the Chinese government gets really angry with Google. I wouldn't like to be in HTC's shoes right now, for sure."We'll stop making your shit if you get political with us" would be a pretty extreme statement from a country with such a huge outsourced manufacturing industry. It's not like Google couldn't just find some other company/factory somewhere to build the phone for them. Other manufacturers would be falling all over themselves for the contract.
Drummond said that the hackers never got into Gmail accounts via the Google hack, but they did manage to get some "account information (such as the date the account was created) and subject line."Remember, Google doesn't keep any user data in China (because it doesn't want to be forced to disclose it to the Chinese government), which means that the "internal intercept system" that was hacked was back here in the US.
That's because they apparently were able to access a system used to help Google comply with search warrants by providing data on Google users, said a source familiar with the situation, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak with the press.
"Right before Christmas, it was, 'Holy s***, this malware is accessing the internal intercept [systems],'" he said.
Fat Sand! Fat Sand! Fat Sand! Fat Sand! Fat Sand!The longer comments are more readable. I hope Google doesn't stop working on it's translation system, Chinese language spidering and so on.
Sofa!
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Ultra-hate to grab sofa for the music people, unpleasant
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Bench! Celestial too crab, and Google went really do not know what the Internet
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If you later on, then Google should be over the wall, then with a cup. Gmail, Search, Google Reader is now wanted to use every day ironclad, Doc, Map, Calendar, Chinese music is often to use and feels so cool, and also There Appengine, Google Code ... ...
No Google, the living do not have to dry.
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Bench bench bench bench bench bench bench bench bench bench
We don’t talk about types or numbers of requests to help protect all our users. Obviously, we follow the law like any other company. When we receive a subpoena or court order, we check to see if it meets both the letter and the spirit of the law before complying. And if it doesn’t we can object or ask that the request is narrowed. We have a track record of advocating on behalf of our users.The company also refuses to talk about how many requests it fights back against. Yes, it likes to talk about that one time in 2006 when the company pushed back in response to a DOJ request... however, when it does brag about that incident, it usually doesn't mention that the company ended up giving DOJ essentially the same data that Yahoo and Microsoft had previously coughed up.
Google's statement was hotly debated within the senior ranks of the company, according to two people familiar with the matter. Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt was concerned about the potential backlash, but operating in China has been a concern of Google co-founder Sergey Brin in particular, these people said.posted by delmoi at 7:51 AM on January 13, 2010
He said that the attack came in the form of an e-mail with a PDF attachment containing a “Trojan” virus, which allows a hacker to access a computer remotely and download or delete files. The virus was detected and officials were told not to log on until it was eliminated, he said.posted by jenkinsEar at 4:34 PM on January 17, 2010
“People seem to be fairly sure it was the Chinese. It is difficult to find the exact source but this is the main suspicion. It seems well founded,” he said, adding that India was co-operating with America and Britain to bolster its cyber defences.
It's unclear what is going on at Baidu, but two senior managers resigning in ten days is undeniably a sign of trouble. It's hard not to see this move in relation to the whole Google/China ordeal, but we should note Baidu's COO Peng Ye quit the company before Google posted its bombshell blog post about the 'Operation Aurora' cyberattacks and its decision to stop censoring search results on its Chinese portal.Far-fetched speculation: perhaps the source code stolen from Google was handed over to Baidu?
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posted by 1adam12 at 3:43 PM on January 12, 2010 [16 favorites]