Reason #2,347,598 why the Chinese government needs to be overthrown....

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Quote :

First, this attack was not just on Google. As part of our investigation we have discovered that at least twenty other large companies from a wide range of businesses--including the Internet, finance, technology, media and chemical sectors--have been similarly targeted. We are currently in the process of notifying those companies, and we are also working with the relevant U.S. authorities.

Oh me oh my.

Quote :

Second, we have evidence to suggest that a primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. Based on our investigation to date we believe their attack did not achieve that objective. Only two Gmail accounts appear to have been accessed, and that activity was limited to account information (such as the date the account was created) and subject line, rather than the content of emails themselves.

Breaking international law to stick it to a couple protestors? Stay classy, China.

Quote :

We launched Google.cn in January 2006 in the belief that the benefits of increased access to information for people in China and a more open Internet outweighed our discomfort in agreeing to censor some results. 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."

For those of you who don't speak corporate, this is the hammer being raised...

Quote :

These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered--combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web--have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China. We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.

Aaaaaaaaand THUNK!

That's quite an ultimatum; either let us run an unrestricted search engine, or we pull out entirely. I wonder if this severe breach of trust will lead to a cascade of businesses "reviewing the feasibility of operations in China". I kinda hope they do; China is poised to be the world's next superpower, and I think it's best if our true overlords in the corporations put a stop to some of the shit they pull before that position is realized.

Google is one of the few not-evil computer oriented companies. I hope I can trust them to do the right thing here.

China's behavior in general kind of reminds me of Dr. Strangelove. Lots of resources and technology and scary weapons used in the dumbest possible way.

Mafiosa wrote:

Google is one of the few not-evil computer oriented companies. I hope I can trust them to do the right thing here.

I agree. I am not willing to trust any corporate giant completely but I like Google.

Reepicheep-chan wrote:

Mafiosa wrote:

Google is one of the few not-evil computer oriented companies. I hope I can trust them to do the right thing here.

I agree. I am not willing to trust any corporate giant completely but I like Google.

Just like they want...

It's all part of the masterplan

They get a sick charge out of screwing around with journalists' e-mails. You can find the gory details at CNN.com:

Quote :

(CNN) -- Foreign correspondents in at least two Beijing, China, bureaus of news organizations have had their Google e-mail accounts attacked, with e-mails forwarded to a mysterious address, according to the Foreign Correspondents' Club of China.

In an advisory posted on its Web site, the organization advised members how to check if their Gmail had been compromised and urged caution when clicking on links and e-mail attachments. The advisory did not name the news organizations affected.

In September the correspondents' club warned that journalists' news assistants were reporting being the victims of e-mail viruses sent by purported media organizations. One such e-mail claimed to be from an editor of The Straits Times in Singapore.

There's more where that came from, alas.

We already had a thread about this, Jesus.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Oops. [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] Forgot.

Chris91 wrote:

Oops. [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] Forgot.

Maybe Nil can merge it IDk. To be fair the CNN article does shine some light on the issue.

Merged.

Mafiosa wrote:

Google is one of the few not-evil computer oriented companies.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

"Many Bothan spies died to bring us this information..."

Penguin wrote:

Mafiosa wrote:

Google is one of the few not-evil computer oriented companies.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Is this gleeful agreement or at you laughing at my probable naivety regarding Google.

The latter one, yeah. Google's decent as far as corporations go but they pull their own share of shady stuff too. They just have a spit-shined public image that keeps people from having cows about it.

I'm having Ghost in the Shell flashbacks.

How terribly interesting. Google is still censoring its search results in China.

Quote :

However, almost a month after its strongly-worded statement, Google hasn't followed through on its plan and continues censoring its search results in China.

Asked for an update on the matter, a Google spokesman said on Friday via e-mail that the company has nothing new to add beyond its initial blog posting on Jan. 12 and the brief comments CEO Eric Schmidt made afterwards.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

As a result of the China hacking, Google is working with the NSA to beef up their security.

Quote :

The world's largest Internet search company and the world's most powerful electronic surveillance organization are teaming up in the name of cybersecurity.

Under an agreement that is still being finalized, the National Security Agency would help Google analyze a major corporate espionage attack that the firm said originated in China and targeted its computer networks, according to cybersecurity experts familiar with the matter. The objective is to better defend Google -- and its users -- from future attack.

Predictably, there are a number of conspiracy theories about how this may or may not allow the NSA to view user content. Google's position is that it will not.