Hillary Clinton demands Chinese Government explains Google cyber attack

More details have emerged surrounding the controversy between Google and China, with an online security firm releasing information about the alleged attacks on various human rights organisations.

The move prompted Google to threaten abandoning its Chinese operations, after saying it would no longer submit to the Government’s laws in censoring certain websites and links.

Security firm iDefense, part of California-based VeriSign’s business, said in a statement the attacks appeared to come from official Chinese protocols.

“Two independent, anonymous iDefense sources in the defence contracting and intelligence consulting community confirmed that both the source IPs and drop server of the attack correspond to a single foreign entity consisting either of agents of the Chinese state or proxies thereof,” said an iDefense statement.

iDefense, which works with several government agencies and Fortune 500 companies, also said the attacks were similar to those targeting Silicon Valley firms last year. The new attacks targeted the Gmail accounts of several human rights activists.

The company said while the codes of both last year’s and the new attacks were different, “they contact two similar hosts for command-and-control communication”.

“Considering this proximity, it is possible that the two attacks are one and the same, and that the organisations targeted in the Silicon Valley attacks have been compromised since July.”

The statement comes after Google chief legal officer David Drummond said in his own blog post that about 20 other companies had been targeted by the “highly sophisticated and targeted attack”.

While both Google and iDefense have not specifically blamed the Chinese Government, many industry analysts noted Google’s threat to abandon its Chinese operations as a thinly-veiled accusation.

Warren Cowan, chief executive of search marketing agency Greenlight, said in a statement Google’s decision to leave China would have massive ramifications for businesses looking to advertise in the country.

“Without Google, assuming Yahoo and Bing remain, that 30% share will redistribute. Most likely to Baidu, which will further cement its leadership position, and the remainder may not split equally among Bing and Yahoo users, which would further upset the balance of power for one or the other, and means growing in the Chinese market is likely to make it very difficult for at least one of them.”

“For advertisers looking to target the Chinese market, it means a greater dependency on foreign operators who are less familiar to them, and less integrated with their ad operations.”

Additionally, software firm Adobe said in a statement it suspected it was under attack, but did not give details about where it suspected the attack originated.

“We are currently in contact with other companies and are investigating the incident,” the company stated.

“At this time, we have no evidence to indicate that any sensitive information, including customer, financial, employee or any other sensitive data, has been compromised. We anticipate that the full investigation will take quite some time to complete.”

Meanwhile, US secretary of state Hillary Clinton has said Beijing should explain the origin of the attacks, and said she will be monitoring the matter over the next few weeks.

“We have been briefed by Google on these allegations, which raise very serious concerns and questions,” Clinton said in a statement. “We look to the Chinese government for an explanation. The ability to operate with confidence in cyberspace is critical in a modern society and economy.”

“I will be giving an address next week on the centrality of internet freedom in the 21st century, and we will have further comment on this matter as the facts become clear.”

Drummond said in his blog post the company decided to enter China despite its rules regarding censorship in order to bring the benefits of its services to users, but maintained the company always said it watch the country’s censorship legislation carefully.

“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,” he said.

“We recognise that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.”