Exit strategy? Flowers are seen placed in front of the headquarters of Google’s offices in Beijing.
AP Images
After an attack that required staggering skill and resources, the company threatens to quit China.
Google's threat to withdraw its operation from China has shed more light on a remarkably sophisticated computerized espionage network originating from the country, experts say.
Last night Google announced that it would no longer participate in government censorship of the Chinese version of its site, Google.cn, and threatened to shut down its operations in China altogether. In a blog post, David Drummond, senior vice president of corporate development and chief legal officer at Google, wrote that the decision was taken in response to a series of Internet attacks against Google and other companies, as well as covert Internet surveillance of human-rights activists.
Though Google has not disclosed the exact nature of the attacks, Drummond wrote: "In mid-December, we detected a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China that resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google." He added that the company has gathered evidence that 20 other large Internet, finance, technology, media, and chemical companies were also attacked.
In Google's case, the attackers tried to get into Gmail accounts belonging to Chinese human-rights activists, Drummond said. The company believes that the efforts were not successful, but that hackers have been targeting human-rights activists based in other parts of the world through a range of hacking techniques.
Amichai Shulman, CTO of Imperva, a data-security company based in Redwood Shores, CA, says Google probably called the attack "highly sophisticated" because the hackers got into the heart of its database and password list. "The intellect and resources required to pull off such a surgical attack are staggering considering the defenses Google has put in place to protect digital assets," he says.
The hackers probably used "social engineering" techniques to breach Google's defenses, suggests Nart Villeneuve, chief research officer for the Canadian company SecDev.cyber, and the director of operations for a censorship circumvention tool called Psiphon.
In March 2009 Villeneuve uncovered "GhostNet," a cyber-spying operation originating in China that was said to have targeted the Dalai Lama and other human-rights activists. Though Villeneuve has no direct knowledge of the attacks discovered by Google, he says it's likely that they match the methods he has been monitoring.
Villeneuve says the hackers he has studied start by sending users within a target network system a carefully crafted e-mail full of personal information. This isn't the same as a spam message, he says--instead it's "someone crafting an attack." The attacker will attach a PDF or Word document loaded with malware that compromises the user's computer when it's opened. Users can protect themselves to some extent with antivirus software, but Villeneuve says that such programs only identified about six out of 41 of the infected documents he has checked. Once a PC has been infected, the attacker can command it remotely.
The company blames China, but none of the evidence is definitive—which is the nature of such attacks.
Secrets are flying online, both state and personal, and Internet companies are still looking for ways to make money on applications—or with users' private data.
Attackers made sophisticated use of social media sites to steal Indian government data.
They say in business all is fair. We have seen predatory marketing practices all over the world by most major companies.
It is a global economy today. Every country has their own problems and deal with it in their own unique way.
I remember when Indira Gandhi kicked out IBM and Coca Cola out of India because they were not ready to have an equal partnership. Much has changed in India today. All will be forgotten in time.
We spend too much time whining.Lets spend our time innovating and getting better at what we do.
Lets do what Americans do well, stay on the cutting edge of technology.There is a price involved in overseas business.
This is not about business, or pride, or prejudice.
It is about freedom, that most precious treasury, that people take for granted when they had it all their lives. People who live, or have lived, under a dictatorship, who have known the fear of being arrested or punished for thinking differently and daring to say so, know that freedom could never be compromised. Google should not compromise. There is nothing more important than freedom of speech and freedom of thought, and both go together.
Lets see.... The Chinese government runs unarmed students over with tanks, and then lines up the organizers and shoots them in a stadium.
Oh, but now they sent information stealing emails to Google! How could this happen!
All these US companies have deluded themselves. They have no representation, they are at the whim of this whack-job communist government.
Fools rush in.....
Re: You are all Kidding right?
I wish it could happen but this is the perfect scenario for the US to take action in order to overthrow the wicked communists. Back in the Tianamen days China had not entered into the global free enterprise market and its people did not depend on jobs that export products. Today the vast majority are dependent on these jobs to survive. Imagine what would happen if all these jobs were to suddenly vanish when the West no longer deal with China. This would create so much unrest that it would bring down the Chinese government.
We have seen a glimpse of it a year or two back when the unemployment situation was highest in China. Sure we would suffer some too, but the Chinese government would be the biggest loser. And it would have been the most important investment the country could make so far. Get rid of this last evil bastion on earth!
here's a review of the Chinese Internet situation.. 3 of 4 most popular worldwide websites - Twitter, youtube, facebook have been already blocked, and Google be the next?
http://umi.beok.net/porcelain/?p=167
Besides passively trying to stop hacks I suggest corporations implement reverse attacks on any hacker. By using dummy databases and files either destroy any computer system hacking your infrastructure or send out viral code that infiltrates the infected machines launching the attack to trace the remote controllers.
In this case I suspect Google has conclusively evidence of Chinese government involvement and will now negotiate with them on their terms or publicly disclose their evidence.
I think this is just the tip of the iceberg. Our corporate entities have been sacrificing their values for a long time in the hopes that China opens up more to the world. However, at some point in time companies have to decide whether or not their values and ideals can come in line with their actions - and work to reconcile these differences. I think what happened at Google China is a combination of a business threat (ie sophisticated hackers, probably government sanctioned) and a gap between their corporate values/ideals and their actions.
Guest (Uber1)
Google is a drama queen crying on Obama's shoulder. Just quit China. America is still represented by Bing, Yahoo, Ask, etc.
It was cheaper to get China to become more Capatilistic than to go to war with them. Nixon's ping pong match started all this. Alas - the Chinese Government (and their Military) want all those Western Secrets, but now they're too entrenched in making a buck to really back out of the game now.
As for the espionage activities - stealing things that China has no intention of Marketing abroad is what needs to be focused on. Eventually they may get enough stuff to kick out the foreigners, but at some time they will have to come back to the table and play some more. Let's face it - the Chinese People LIKE making a decent living, and that's the chink in the armor Nixon wanted to exploit. Eventually the old leadership will die off and be replaced by more open leadership. It may take four or five more generations, but it will happen. Our U.S. leadership is too naive to think it's already happened and they keep letting more and more businesses go to China.
As for the Chinese Military - they scare me. Who knows what they have stolen and are leveraging against the western allies - not just the US, but all of us.
It will be interesting when one day the US says "We need some tanks to fight a war...oh wait...you make our tanks.....worse yet...we're at war with you!"
I've been reading many praises of Google in the press. I feel this is very misplaced. Google is putting this out there as a last attempt to realign the risk/return of their Chinese investment. Their hope, of course, is to produce a reasonable return on their investment. They've been failing thus far. The claims of censorship are true but Baidu.com has the same censorship. The facts are Google has willingly censored their own search at the request of the Chinese. Additionally, they've had a purposeful hand in aiding the Chinese government in locating, arresting, and prosecuting Chinese rights activists. Because they commit these acts in China, US law has no jurisdiction. This law ought to be changed much as we now have laws against sex tours to poor developing nations.
Make no mistake, Google is no rights supporter. They ought to be tarred and feathered for their greedy and disgusting acts against humanity.
You may not be old enough to remember public speeches by Chinese officials vowing to overthrow the US government. When they realized they could not beat us militarily they switched to saying they would destroy us from within. Today they appear to be pursuing both tracks as they continue to pour large amounts of resources into their military while they exploit every economic option. I fear the godless.
I'm not defending China at all. They can't nor should be defended. But China is China while Google gets a pass for threatening (and its only a threat) to do what they should have done years ago. Google doesn't deserve cover as you and many others provide.
How does the author knows that the first two commenters are "Whites"? Are you not also steriotyping?
considering the antifreeze in cough medicine, lead paint in toys, melannin in infant formula no wonder there is distrust. So, whoses greedy????
To make a product, cough medicine, that killed hundreds of kids in Central America.... says it all. Untrustful.
I have only seen two mentions of the Chinese search engine, Baidu. You can look at this as a marketplace battle between two giants. Baidu has the, unbeatable, home advantage.
I talk with my girl friend in China everyday and when I go there I use yahoo with no problems, but I don't search porn sites. I can even get Fox news in China. I don't support what there government does, but I think we could use some internet filtering here.
Giggle cant do anything, they are driven by greed and will suck up to the Chinese Government, turn activists in and anything they are required to do.
All they can do is whine like a 2 year old baby everytime.
China just spanks the big baby and the baby shuts up till the next time.
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gabrielg01
450 Comments
Re: comment harmonized
comment was 'harmonized'
Reply
doanwon
76 Comments
Re: Everybody should pull out of xenophobic China.
Not nationalist China but communist and totalitarian China--evil, sly, shifty. 'Nuf said.
Reply
jmarden
2 Comments
Re: Everybody should pull out of xenophobic China.
"...evil, sly, shifty."
Age old stereotypes from racist whites against Asians/Chinese.
No wonder the Chinese government is xenophobic.
Reply
stephenvaile
2 Comments
Re: Everybody should pull out of xenophobic China.
This xenophobic Native American (Pikanii Blackfoot Indian) knows first hand that there is nothing benevolent about the Communist Chinese Leadership. The quicker the elitist liberal snobs of the planet wake up to this fact, the quicker the regular citizens of mainland China will have freedom and the rest of the world will be able to do business with honest, reliable,and honorable people.
Reply
doanwon
76 Comments
Re: Everybody should pull out of xenophobic China.
Thank you stephenvaile for seeing that the description was directed at the communist leadership. How else would anyone have described the actions perpetrated by the communists against its own people and against foreign enterprises? You have to call an ace for what it is. Maybe some liberals will describe the egregious offenses as "honest, reliable,and honorable".
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jmarden
2 Comments
Re: Everybody should pull out of xenophobic China.
You could have used better and more precise description rather than racist-sounding gibes. All this hostile language is just a manifestation of inner prejudice.
Yeah, call an ace for what it is. Don't hide behind accusations of espionage, xenophobia etc...
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nouveauphoto
2 Comments
Re: Everybody should pull out of xenophobic China.
NO Joke, Pull OUT and restart our own country / Heart again. China has turned our Greed against ourselves and has shown what we should have learned over Two Hundred Years ago! Are we fated to repeat mistakes again and again, until we get it wrong... AGAIN?
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skingw
31 Comments
Yes! Pull out GM First
Please pull out GM first! Call your senators, write to Whitehouse, get the trade union, whatsoever!
I am in beijing, and hate GM for no reason but my wife likes it for no reason. And we are fighting a major family decision as we are buying the first family car ever with savings of two years. I prefer a Nissan crossover.
Back to google, my wife never uses it, and she only uses baidu to search for pirated Korean TV dramas, which I hate so much. I am using them about half half. The major problem would be my Gmail account.
So sorry for google. But its way of handling this issue like a real "maverick" means no Chinese government, communist or not, would accept this.
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shomas
245 Comments
Re: Yes! Pull out GM First
Your neighbor may not like you but that does not justify him stealing your TV. Disliking a product or service does not justify theft of actual or intellectual property.
Businesses that consider pulling out of a rouge state such as china do so to protect their investments.
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Guest (Uber1)
Re: Everybody should pull out of xenophobic China.
But then again, neocons are paranoid of China and communism.
Reply
doanwon
76 Comments
Re: Everybody should pull out of xenophobic China.
There is no paranoia about China and communism. There is however understanding of first hand experience from people like myself and stevenvaile, who have seen what it's like to live under communism and their blatant disrespect for human rights. Don't let the twisted liberals mess you up.
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gstide
3 Comments
Re: Everybody should pull out of xenophobic China.
"no paranoia ..."? this is funny.
if you really want to know what's going on in China, you need to be there. western press won't tell you the truth.
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