Google Hack Thwarted

Last week, the Internet giant Google prevented an attack targeting hundreds of Gmail users. Unlike previous attacks, this time, the company is pointing fingers at where it believes the attacks originated from – Jinan, China. Google has been the target of several rounds of cyber attacks, the last was aimed at trade secrets and the current one was aimed at stealing login information from top American civilians and military officials, some South Korean military officials, and dissident Chinese activists and human right officials. The Chinese authority answered back in a way that some are calling highly irresponsible.

One would have expected the Chinese authority to launch an investigation and see what they can find rather than blasting out on Google's claim. According to a newspaper report by the China People's Daily: 'Google should not become overly embroiled in international political struggle, playing the role of a tool for political contention.'

In an official press release by Google: 'The goal of this effort seems to have been to monitor the contents of these users' emails, with the perpetrators apparently using stolen passwords to change people's forwarding and delegation settings.'

Google, which already has a soured relationship with the Chinese authority, has nothing to lose by pointing fingers at the Communist Nation. In addition, according to reports by the security firm Trend Micro, there were similar attacks on Yahoo Mail and Hotmail.

As it stands, the Chinese authorities have ignored the U.S government's request for an investigation. In the China Youth Daily newspaper, the Chinese government accused the U.S of carrying out what it called a 'global Internet war' which became intense after Google's latest attack.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon is considering implementing a cyber warfare strategy following the latest cyber attack on Google and Lockheed Martin, the U.S defense contractor. Part of what is under consideration is the policy that the Pentagon might respond back to the location of any cyber attack targeting U.S. government institutions and defense contractors. The response could be by counter cyber attack and even a military attack, in the most severe cases.

There are many daily attacks, originating from China, on small companies that don't make headlines. Some of these companies do not have the resources required to put up multi-layered security capable of fending off high-profile attacks like the defense contractors do. When it comes to cyber-attacks, it is inexpensive to launch an attack but cost a whole lot to prevent a major one.

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-By Dominic

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