China denies role in Gmail account attacks

Computerworld - A Chinese official today denied accusations that the government was responsible for attacks that accessed hundreds of Google Gmail accounts.

"The so-called allegations that the Chinese government supports hacking is completely fabricated with ulterior motives," said Hong Lei, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in a Beijing press briefing today.

On Wednesday, Google announced it had disrupted a targeted phishing campaign designed to hijack Gmail accounts belonging to senior U.S. and South Korean government officials, military personnel, Chinese activists and journalists.

Google said it had traced the identity theft attacks to Jinan, China, a city in eastern China that was linked to the December 2009 attacks on Google's network. Those attacks eventually prompted Google to transfer its search engine from China to Hong Kong.

According to the Reuters news service, the U.S. is looking into Google's claims.

"We are obviously very concerned about Google's announcement regarding a campaign that the company believes originated in China," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters Thursday. "We take them seriously, we're looking into them."

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) will lead the inquiry, Clinton indicated. The FBI did not reply to Computerworld's request for comment on the investigation.

Lei also called Google's accusations "unacceptable," and said "China is also a victim" of hacking.

But the most caustic comments came from Xinhau News Agency, the Chinese government's official press arm.

In an editorial published on the agency's Web site, Yang Lina blasted Google, saying it was "impudent...to lash out at others without solid proof to support its accusation" and calling the U.S. company's complaint "chimerical."

"Furthermore, it is not appropriate for Google, a profit-first business, to act as an Internet judge," said Lina.

Google credited its internal abuse detection systems, designed to warn it of suspicious behavior by Gmail accounts, for kick-starting its investigation, but also gave a tip of the hat to Mila Parkour, a Washington D.C.-based independent security researcher who reported on the Gmail phishing campaign in mid-February.

Unlike the attacks in late 2009 that targeted Google and dozens of other Western corporations, the phishing campaign did not try to plant malware on victim's PCs, said Parkour today.