Authorities in the United States are investigating a Google claim that hackers in China stole email details of senior U.S. government officials — an issue that illustrates the problem of attribution in cyberspace, the coordinator for cyber issues at the U.S. State Department said Thursday.
Google disclosed Wednesday that personal Gmail accounts of several hundred people, including senior U.S. government officials, military personnel and political activists, had been breached. The company said it traced the origin of the attacks to Jinan, China, the home city of a military vocational school whose computers were linked to an assault 17 months ago on Google's systems. China has said it does not support hacking.
Michael Chertoff, a secretary for Homeland Security under President George W. Bush, said the reported hack illustrated the need for officials in sensitive positions to steer clear of unsecured email communication. He said senior government workers needed to police their own "cyber-hygiene."
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