A top Google official on Thursday told US lawmakers that the Gmail accounts of dozens of activists who advocate human rights in China have been accessed by the third party, originating from China.
As such Google is currently reviewing its business interest there, he said, "In mid-December, we detected a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure, originating from China, with a primary but unsuccessful goal to access Gmail accounts."
"However, it soon became clear that what at first appeared to be solely a security incident was something quite different. Other companies from a range of businesses - finance, technology, media and chemical -were similarly targeted," he said.
"We discovered in our investigation that the accounts of dozens of Gmail users around the world who advocate for human rights in China appeared to have been accessed by third parties," said Nicole Wong, Vice President and Deputy Counsel of the Google in his testimony before a Congressional committee.
"This happened independent of the attack on Google, likely through phishing or malware placed on those users' computers. These circumstances, as well as attempts over the past year to limit free speech online, led us to conclude that we no longer feel comfortable censoring our search results in China. We are currently reviewing our business operations there," he told US lawmakers.
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