By Herman Lai, posted Jun 2, 2011 at 12:12 PM, 758 views,

Google Gmail Got Attacked From China, But China Gets Hacked Too (update: video!)

Google claimed their Gmail system confronted hacking again, from China as well. This is the third time since the previous attack in March as well as in 2009. With the recent hack, it was particularly targeted on Google e-mail accounts of top US officials, military personnel and journalists. This attack could raise the tension of cyber-wars.

CNN has an in-depth report on the cyber attack:

News Report from NTD Television:

And this is what the Chinese government responds to the attack:

Unlike last time, Google did not blamed on the Chinese government directly over the recent cyber-spying, and claimed to find phishing” scam from Jinan, the capital of Shandong province. Moreover, Chinese political activists and officials in other Asian countries were also targeted from the Shandong city, which is 400 km (250 miles) south of Beijing. The place also linked to a cyberattack on Google and other companies in 2009 that preceded Google’s decision in 2010 to move its Chinese-language search operation out of mainland China.

The hack had reportedly stolen the login details of Gmail users and aimed to get full control of the accounts. It targeted on individual rather than on the Gmail’s system, claimed it was accomplished by sending tailored emails to those hundreds users’ accounts, and led them to a fake log in page to trick them entering their password. The US company said its security was not breached but indicated individuals’ passwords were obtained through fraud.

Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of the Global Times said on his microblog:

”How many officials does China have daily whose computers are attacked?” “Why don’t we make this public? Now it’s all foreign countries pointing the finger at China, saying China is attacking foreigners’ computers, and our overseas students are all spies.”

Mr.Hu blamed the situation on “insufficient transparency of information in China,” complaining that the Communist Party was still acting as if it were an underground organization, “silent and circumspect.”

As the local media in China are rarely reported any attacks to the Chinese government’s computers. In fact, the government would like to tight the lid on information instead, a Chinese cybersecurity experts privately say that such attacks happen frequently enough to be a significant concern.

Therefore, this is understandable that China needs a team of cyber-warriors to set up their cyber defensive line. Where the China defense ministry admitted the existence of “The Blue Army” last week, and strongly emphasized the team is only for cyber defense, but still caused fear across many countries.

The Chinese government had repeatedly denied any involvement of hacking Gmail, and the White House continues to investigate the claims made by Google. A China’s foreign ministry spokesman said it was “unacceptable” to blame China.

Furthermore, Google official blog has already give solutions for users who got hacked.

Source: Google Official Blog, BBC, Guardian, WSJ