Google has once again suffered an attack, and this time, it is largely in its email service. Hundreds of Gmail subscribers have reported an intrusion to their accounts, stealing their passwords and monitoring their emails. The victimized accounts belong to high profile persons like some senior U.S. government officials, Chinese political activists, some Asian countries’ officials, journalists and military personnel.
Last year Google had a similar problem and pointed to China as the origin of the attack. It resulted in a rift in the relationship between the company and the alleged perpetrator. Soon after the incident, Google transferred its Chinese search engine base to Hong Kong. Compared with the first attack, this one may not be as sophisticated as the first in terms of technology used, but the victims this time were prominent people. Using phishing, the perpetrators tricked their victims to capture the email passwords of users.
There were indications that the Google attack was masterfully coordinated. The victims were not just picked at random as can be deduced from their profiles. One explanation is that someone has “entered” into one email account and used its contacts in order to victimize some other targeted users.
Google issued recommendations to its users about how they can prevent such attacks. As an added security measure, users should go through a stricter verification process. Doing so would ensure better protection. The company has developed a two-step verification process before a user can access his or her email account.
Chinese government spokespersons reacted to Google’s statement that is pointing the blame at them. According to the country’s foreign ministry, the government had always denounced any criminal activities that may compromise the internet as a useful tool. It further stood up to say that China, too, is not spared from similar cyber attacks, specifically hacking. If there is something that needs to be done, it is to put China as one of the victims and not as a suspect.
There are some circumstances pointing to Jinan, located in the eastern part of China, as the origin of the attack. One of the seven Chinese military command centers is found here. It is also the site of the Lanxiang Vocational School, which is a school with military support. The investigations on the attacks conducted last year pointed to the same school as the origin. Some observers said, however, that it is impossible to directly put the blame on China. Today’s internet technology is already borderless, meaning there are no clear boundaries between places. As such, there are several ways for people to be “present” in different locations while doing this kind of privacy invasion.
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