After Hack, Google Reconsiders China Strategy

Google is rethinking its involvement in the Chinese market, after uncovering a serious hacking attempt against the company and many others that originated in China.According to various news reports, Google and other companies like Adobe were the target of the recent hacks, which sought source code and access to the e-mail accounts human rights activists in China.

From Wired.com:

A hack attack that targeted Google in December also hit 33 other companies, including financial institutions and defense contractors, and was aimed at stealing source code from the companies, say security researchers at iDefense.

The hackers used a zero-day vulnerability in Adobe Reader to deliver malware to the companies and were in many cases successful at siphoning the source code they sought, according to a statement distributed Tuesday by iDefense, a division of VeriSign. The attack was similar to one that targeted other companies last July, the company said.

In a blog post, Google's SVP of corporate development and chief legal officer David Drummond wrote that a primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. The attacks, combined with the limits that the country places upon free speech, has led Google to rethink its place in the Chinese market, Drummond said in the post.

From the Official Google Blog:

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.