Google Accuses China of Cyber Attacks

[I.J. Reilly]

In this post on their blog, Google accuses China (albeit in a round about way) of stealing its intellectual property and hacking into accounts of human rights advocates in China and Europe. It also says it has uncovered proof that these attacks were not limited to Google, but extended to internet, media, financial, technology and chemical companies.

In response, Google says it will no longer be blocking internet searches and will pull out of China if the Chinese government doesn't allow unrestricted searches.

This should be interesting to watch as it develops.

[YOhio]

Fascinating. Thanks for posting.

[Jeff Lebowski]

I have sometimes used an internet filtering device called Cybersitter on our home computer. A few months ago I got an e-mail from the Cybersitter company saying that the Chinese government has developed an official web filter and it forces computer companies (including US companies) to install the filter on all computers shipped to China. Of course, the filter is used to censor the internet in typical Chinese fashion. They decompiled the filter software and found that the main bulk of the code was illegally lifted from the Cybersitter code. They have filed suit against the Chinese government and the computer companies shipping the bootleg code.

[YOhio]

There are a number of issues that we'll be facing in the next decade regarding China and the cyber world.

First, government censorship of the internet. It's pretty well known that the Chinese government has created an expansive filter that censors internet access. This filter is incredibly sophisticated and blocks hundreds of thousands of sites into China, even certain pages within sites. It's not uncommon to find oneself on cnn.com, but be blocked when attempting to access a particular story. They are also becoming more adept at cracking down on the use of proxy servers. Among the dirty secrets of this is that American companies are and have been complicit in developing this filter. Cisco, Microsoft, Google and others have all been involved at one level or another. The Great Firewall of China has some

Second, cyber policing. As the Google blog indicated, the Chinese government is routinely using the web to spy on it's own people and hacking the email accounts of political dissidents. While this also may occur in the U.S. to combat terrorism, drug activity or child porn, it's much more routine in China to shut down speech activity.

Third, cyber warfare. China-originated cyber attacks against U.S. government institutions have been on the rise over the past few years. A couple of years ago hackers from China gained access to unclassified computers within the Pentagon. The recent issue of intercepted signals from Predator drones by Iraqi insurgents using off the shelf software further highlighted military concerns that the Chinese and Russians have been exploiting the same flaw for years.

There are a ton of other issues, but this public rebuke by Google has thrown open the doors and we'll be hearing about this for a while. China won't take this lying down.

[YOhio]

Here's a pretty sobering article on the cyber war between the US and China.

[Moliere]

I read up on this a bit last night. My take is that Google is bluffing. They won't pull out of China. There is too much money at stake. It would kill their stock price and shareholders would riot.

In the end, China will mostly get what they want (continued censorship) and Google will continue to do business in China.

[TripletDaddy]

China has stolen computer code?

China steals IP from everyone else....it is a bastion for counterfeit clothes, toys, electronics, general trademark infringement, movie and music pirating, not to mention producing commercial goods that contain lead.

I guess I am not shocked that China is stealing computer code.

[Surfah]

[Solon]

The Great Firewall of China has some

I'm sorry, would you mind re-posting the end of the sentence? I can only see the censored version. Such a clever turnphrase needs completion.

[YOhio]

I'm sorry, would you mind re-posting the end of the sentence? I can only see the censored version. Such a clever turnphrase needs completion.

Whoops. I didn't finish the sentence. I was going to link to the website named "great firewall of china," which has some good info on the matter.

http://www.greatfirewallofchina.org/

They used to allow an individual to type in a URL, which would then test to see if the site was blocked in China. But they've run into so many technical issues that they discontinued the service.

[I.J. Reilly]

Apparently there was a neighborhood security guard at Google's Beijing headquarters that was removing these flowers and such just about as fast as they could be put up. He informed those that were going to lay flowers that they needed to, "apply for permits at the relevant department; otherwise they were conducting an ‘illegal flower tribute.'"

A few choice quotes from state media:

The Xinmin Evening News in Shanghai wrote: “Government regulation is the international norm, so Google’s display is really just an affectation.”


The Global Times, a reliably patriotic organ, announced, without an obvious source, that seventy per cent of Chinese Web users “think the Government should not concede to Google.” Also stating that, "A lot of people welcomed the news, especially those Web users who think Google is not an entirely commercial entity, but is, rather, closely related to the government. As one person put it. ‘It calls itself a commercial firm but it has always been the vanguard of an American political chess match.'"

If you care to read more, these quotes came from here.

[Coach McGuirk]

They stopped filtering.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/03/22/g...ex.html?hpt=C1


This should come to a head quickly.

[Moliere]

They stopped filtering.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/03/22/g...ex.html?hpt=C1


This should come to a head quickly.

I was wrong, well at least it looks that way. Google has some major cajones to do this seeing how they will lose not only todays revenue, but they will lose their market share in China (which I believe is just shy of 50%). I applaud Google executives for their stand. I wonder if investors also applaud them (I own no Google stock).

[Coach McGuirk]

I was wrong, well at least it looks that way. Google has some major cajones to do this seeing how they will lose not only todays revenue, but they will lose their market share in China (which I believe is just shy of 50%). I applaud Google executives for their stand. I wonder if investors also applaud them (I own no Google stock).

Not even close. It has about 13% market share. Baidu has been ripping off their code and tech since it moved into a market. One day, Google would launch a new feature, 2 days later Baidu would have copied the code and launched. The Chinese government just stood by and watched.

Most Chinese will search for something in English on Google, and if they need to search in Chinese they turn to Baidu.

[Moliere]

Not even close. It has about 13% market share. Baidu has been ripping off their code and tech since it moved into a market. One day, Google would launch a new feature, 2 days later Baidu would have copied the code and launched. The Chinese government just stood by and watched.

Most Chinese will search for something in English on Google, and if they need to search in Chinese they turn to Baidu.

Interesting. The percentages I heard must have been old. In fact, looks like they were around 25% in 2006 and that has dropped to 13% since then. Also looks like Google's stock took a hit over the past week, but not too bad considering they pulled out of a market with more internet users than the entire population of the US (stat heard on NPR this morning).