The search giant revealed that hackers thought to be operating from central China tried to hack into the Gmail accounts of hundreds of users, including senior U.S. gov't officials, Chinese activists and journalists. It said on its official blog that the hackers recently tried to crack and monitor email accounts by stealing passwords, but Google detected and disrupted the campaign.
The breach announced Wednesday marks the second time in 17 months that Google has publicly identified China as the home base for a scheme aimed at hijacking information stored on Google's vast network of computers.
Google credited its own security measures for detecting and disrupting the intrusions. All the victims have been notified and their Gmail accounts secured, according to the company. Mila Parkour, a security researcher who helped alert Google to the Gmail breach, said the attacks had been occurring for at least a year before they were finally uncovered.
Google wouldn't say what parts of the U.S. government were targeted or whether any confidential information may have been contained in the trespassed Gmail accounts. Besides senior government officials, other people whose Gmail accounts were infiltrated included Chinese political activists, military personnel, journalists and officials in other countries, mainly in South Korea.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security didn't shed any light in its statement on the attacks. "We are working with Google and our federal partners to review the matter, offer analysis of any malicious activity, and develop solutions to mitigate further risk," agency spokesman Chris Ortman said.
Google traced the origin of the attacks to Jinan, China. That's the home city of a military vocational school whose computers were linked to the assault more than a year ago on Google's computer systems, along with those of more than 20 other U.S. companies.
The culprits behind the Gmail breaches appeared to have specific targets in mind. That is known as "spear phishing" in high-tech circles. Computer security specialist says spear phishing often provides the means for even broader attacks.
The Gmail attackers were intent on spying on inboxes, according to Google, but their ambitions beyond that were unclear.
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