Beijing : China rejects Google allegation of Massive hacking breach as fabrication as Google alleged that hackers based in China accessed hundreds of Gmail accounts, including some belonging to senior U.S. officials,
Asked repeatedly at a news conference about the hacking, the spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the accusations against China are “unacceptable.”
Vast quantities of e-mail content were accessed, according to two people with knowledge of the breach. They said the FBI was notified last week and that there was some debate within Google about whether to publicize the incident, because to do so could foreclose investigative options.
The hackers allegedly used a “phishing” campaign to trick users of the popular e-mail service into revealing their passwords, which allowed the perpetrators to monitor incoming and outgoing messages.
The personal Gmail account of one Cabinet-level official was compromised, an official with knowledge of the breach said, and other senior government officials and military personnel were also affected.
Google said the targeted attack appeared to originate from the Chinese city of Jinan and also hit the Gmail accounts of journalists, Chinese political activists and South Korean and other Asian officials.
Google determined that its users were attacked by phishing schemes, typically e-mails that trick the recipient into surrendering personal information or clicking on links that infect the computer with a virus.
After announcing the incident on a blog post, Google did not elaborate on which U.S. officials were affected, how long the users’ accounts were exposed, or whether the attacker appeared to be a government agent.
U.S. authorities said no official government e-mail systems were breached, but it was unclear whether any of the victims forwarded their work e-mails to Gmail accounts.
