Google hacked by Chinese, plans to leave country?

  Quote

"We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we 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 this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China."

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-approach-to-china.html

oh man, google grew some cojones.

holy fuck this is going to be quite big news

  Quote

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.

woah

*lubes*

  Quote

Like many other well-known organizations, we face cyber attacks of varying degrees on a regular basis. 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. However, it soon became clear that what at first appeared to be solely a security incident–albeit a significant one–was something quite different.

 

First, this attack was not just on Google. As part of our investigation we have discovered that at least twenty other large companies from a wide range of businesses–including the Internet, finance, technology, media and chemical sectors–have been similarly targeted. We are currently in the process of notifying those companies, and we are also working with the relevant U.S. authorities.

 

Second, we have evidence to suggest that a primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. Based on our investigation to date we believe their attack did not achieve that objective. Only two Gmail accounts appear to have been accessed, and that activity was limited to account information (such as the date the account was created) and subject line, rather than the content of emails themselves.

 

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. These accounts have not been accessed through any security breach at Google, but most likely via phishing scams or malware placed on the users’ computers.

 

We have already used information gained from this attack to make infrastructure and architectural improvements that enhance security for Google and for our users. In terms of individual users, we would advise people to deploy reputable anti-virus and anti-spyware programs on their computers, to install patches for their operating systems and to update their web browsers. Always be cautious when clicking on links appearing in instant messages and emails, or when asked to share personal information like passwords online. You can read more here about our cyber-security recommendations. People interested wanting to learn more about these kinds of attacks can read this U.S. government report (PDF), Nart Villeneuve’s blog and this presentation on the GhostNet spying incident.

 

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. In the last two decades, China’s economic reform programs and its citizens’ entrepreneurial flair have lifted hundreds of millions of Chinese people out of poverty. Indeed, this great nation is at the heart of much economic progress and development in the world today.

 

We launched Google.cn in January 2006 in the belief that the benefits of increased access to information for people in China and a more open Internet outweighed our discomfort in agreeing to censor some results. At the time we made clear that “we will carefully monitor conditions in China, including new laws and other restrictions on our services. If we determine that we are unable to achieve the objectives outlined we will not hesitate to reconsider our approach to China.”

 

These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered–combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web–have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China. We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we 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 this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.

 

The decision to review our business operations in China has been incredibly hard, and we know that it will have potentially far-reaching consequences. We want to make clear that this move was driven by our executives in the United States, without the knowledge or involvement of our employees in China who have worked incredibly hard to make Google.cn the success it is today. We are committed to working responsibly to resolve the very difficult issues raised.

 

Posted by David Drummond, SVP, Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer

and in related news: China's Largest Search Engine Hacked

I was going to say, it's not like they're the only Chinese search engine right?

i hacked china's mums vadge

Fucking awesome. They never should have buckled in the first place, and have seen the consequences of dealing with an abusive regime. Lesson learned hopefully.

Interestingly, they have switched off their Google.cn censorship with immediate effect, so until the Chinese get round to blocking them, china's citizens currently have access to uncensored search for the first time ever.

woah

*lubes*

Thats the Chinese goverment up shit street then

its nice when companies can make so much money they can afford to be moral sometimes

  On 1/13/2010 at 1:28 AM, Rambo said:

*lubes*

*gasp* where?

why can't the chinese just google other googles? Is google.cn the only google available there? There are so many ways to find work arounds on the net Im suprised they even bother censoring anything

Dude, I'm not saying they really had a choice, but this is sort of bad news. Google and Baidu have been neck and neck, and now Google is just giving up the entire chinese market. Shame.

Btw did you know that Blizzard and World of Warcraft got fucked over by the Chinese govt as well? Also just a few days ago they blocked imdb.com, I was like wtf man

so what's happening, are you getting uncensored results?

google.com.cn still seems to be up, but that link in the first post is already blocked :D

this sounds like a great leap forward for google

中國

  On 1/13/2010 at 2:56 AM, ezkerraldean said:

中國

actually, from where i'm sitting it's 中国

but yeah, i'm not sure if this is progress or not. pulling out is one form of protest, but staying the course and fighting is a whole different kind.

  On 1/13/2010 at 2:34 AM, lumpenprol said:

Dude, I'm not saying they really had a choice, but this is sort of bad news. Google and Baidu have been neck and neck, and now Google is just giving up the entire chinese market. Shame.

 

Btw did you know that Blizzard and World of Warcraft got fucked over by the Chinese govt as well? Also just a few days ago they blocked imdb.com, I was like wtf man

Were they really neck and neck? I was under the impresion that in the last year, Baidu had taken a significant lead in the search market share in China. It's gonna be the same result as the last time around for China. "We have acquired all the knowledge we need from you foreign devils and now we will shut ourselves off!" And they go down the shitter again.

Where will wal-mart people get their cheap plastic junk from!