[LINK] "Google to Stop Censoring Search Results in China After Hack Attack"

[rfmcdonald]

Thanks to Michel from Facebook for pointing me to Kim Zetter's Wired's article.

Google has decided to stop censoring search results in China, after discovering that someone based in that country had attempted to hack into the e-mail accounts of human rights activists. The company disclosed the move in a startling announcement posted to its blog late Tuesday.

Google said it was prepared to pull its business out of China, if issues around the surveillance and its decision to stop censoring results could not be resolved with the Chinese government.

Although the company did not accuse the Chinese government of being behind the hack attacks, Google said that the attacks, combined with attempts by China over the last year to “further limit free speech on the web” led it to conclude that it needed to “review the feasibility of our business operations in China.”

[. . .]

The search and advertising giant discovered in December that it was the target of a “highly sophisticated” cyberattack on its corporate infrastructure, which resulted in the theft of intellectual property. However, in investigating the incident, the company wrote on its blog, it soon realized the attack was something more than a simple security breach.

At least 20 other large companies were targeted as well, including other internet and technology companies as well as businesses in the financial, media and chemical sectors.

Google concluded that the primary goal of the attackers who targeted its network was to hack into the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. The attackers appeared, however, to succeed at obtaining access to only two accounts. That access was limited to basic account information, such as the date the account was created and the subject lines of e-mail, not the content of the correspondence. Google spokesman Gabriel Stricker told Threat Level that the company has already notified the owners of those accounts.

[. . .]

Google launched its Chinese-language search engine, Google.cn, in January 2006. The company said at the time that it did so in the belief that a search engine would help open access to information for Chinese residents. To obtain permission to operate in China, however, the company had agreed to censor search results that the Chinese government deemed objectionable. Google was harshly criticized by civil liberties groups for its concession to Chinese authorities.

The company now appears to be regretting that decision.

“We have taken the unusual step of sharing information about these attacks with a broad audience not just because of the security and human rights implications of what we have unearthed, but also because this information goes to the heart of a much bigger global debate about freedom of speech,” Drummond wrote Tuesday about the company’s reversal of its position in China. “The decision to review our business operations in China has been incredibly hard, and we know that it will have potentially far-reaching consequences.”