Chinese hackers broke into the Gmail accounts of several hundred people, Google said today.
According to AP the attacks were not particularly sophisticated and targeted senior US government officials, military personnel and political activists. An intrusion originating from China in late 2009 sparked a high-profile battle with China's Communist government over online censorship.
Apparently the latest attack used "phishing" scams and other underhanded behaviour but the attacks were stopped by the search engine outfit's security measures. All the victims were notified and their Gmail accounts secured.
Chinese political activists, military personal, journalists and officials in other countries including South Korea were targeted. Google said that the attack came from Jinan in China. That's the home city of a vocational school whose computers were linked to the assault more than a year ago.
The downside of this is that the school trains hairdressers and cooks and is not renowned for its computer department.
Google moans
Nick Farell
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