Google Weighs Retaliatory Response After Discovering China Hack

Internet giant Google's concern over censorship boiled over this week after it uncovered a series of security breaches allegedly originating from China and blatantly targeting human rights activists as reported by Google. The search engine giant said the investigation of a breach occurring in December revealed a series of previous intrusions, and Google believes that the extent and nature of these violations warrants potentially closing its operations in China.

The December breach, according to a blog post by Senior Vice President David Drummond of Google, was a “highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China...[We] have evidence to suggest that a primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human right activists.”

Furthermore, the attack penetrated 20 other companies, according to Drummand. He said Google's investigation indicated dozens of Gmail accounts of human rights advocates “appear to have been routinely accessed by third parties via phishing scams or malware.”

Drummond clarified that the December attack only compromised two accounts, and only basic information about the accounts was stolen. The content of e-mails was not accessed.

Nevertheless, the gravity of the intrusion and its implications on human rights is propelling Google to take a stand. Long troubled by concession granted to China over censorship in exchange for market penetration, Google now “will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law if at all. We recognize that his may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China,” according to the blog.

According to an AP report from Joe McDonald and Michael Liedtke, “Visitors left flowers and lit candles outside Google's offices in Beijing's high-tech Haidian district. Notes on bunches of flowers said, 'Thank You Google' and 'Google Bye-bye.' Other visitors bowed in a traditional gesture of respect.” The story quoted one businessperson saying, “I'm here to pay my respects to Google because they did not lose their dignity and they stayed true to their company's beliefs.”

In a BusinessWeek article by Brian Womack and Ari Levy , the authors report, “The move signals Google is hewing closer to its 'Don’t be evil' motto, said Heath Terry, an analyst at FBR Capital Markets in New York. Still, Google is still a 'long way away from getting out of China,' Terry said. The company can threaten to leave the country because China accounts for such a small piece of Google’s sales, he said.”

Related Stories:

Censorship of Internet Needs Scrutiny