Chinese hackers target Google and Google users

Posted by Caitlin on January 13th, 2010

Yesterday, Google released information about a "highly sophisticated and targeted attack on [Google's] corporate infrastructure originating from China that resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google." The attack also targeted at least twenty other large companies, and the hackers seem to have been specifically interested in accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists.

But perhaps even more disturbing than the Google breach is the discovery that third parties have routinely accessed the Gmail accounts of dozens of human rights advocates throughout the world, probably via a combination of phishing scams and malware.

Google has responded to the attack by enhancing its own security, and advises users to take action to secure their own accounts and PCs:

"We would advise people to deploy reputable anti-virus and anti-spyware programs on their computers, to install patches for their operating systems and to update their web browsers. Always be cautious when clicking on links appearing in instant messages and emails, or when asked to share personal information like passwords online."

If you could use some help protection yourself online, take a look at NextAdvisor.com's reviews and comparison of Internet security software. And since most hackers are after your financial data, you should also consider investing in identity theft protection.