Obama Administration Investigates Chinese Hacking of Google E-Mail
Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – The Obama administration considers reports that hackers in China tapped into the e-mail accounts of American government and military leaders to be a “serious” national security issue, a White House spokesman said Thursday.
On Wednesday, Internet giant Google reported that hackers based in Jinan, China had used phishing software to seek e-mail account information of top U.S. government and military officials. They also sought information on Chinese dissidents, journalists and South Korean government officials.
“We’re looking into these reports,” said White House spokesman Jay Carney. “We have no information that any official government accounts were accessed.”
He declined to give more detail about hackers into Google’s e-mail accounts, saying he would prefer to await results of an FBI investigation.
“The president is obviously aware of it,” Carney said.
Hundreds of e-mail accounts were reportedly compromised, including one belonging to a Cabinet-level government official.
Google said in a blog post that it has disrupted the phishing software and notified its customers who might have been affected.
The phishing programs typically try to trick e-mail customers into revealing their passwords so their accounts can be accessed by other persons.
It is uncertain how much information from U.S. government personnel might have been transferred to Google e-mail, or G-mail, accounts. Carney acknowledged that government officials use the Internet widely.
“We are definitely instructed that we need to conduct all of our work on official government accounts,” Carney said.
In addition, government agencies – such as the General Services Administration – increasingly uses G-mail to conduct business.
The Chinese government is denying that it sponsored the hacking.
Carney sidestepped the source of the e-mail infiltration by saying, “I’m not going to confirm anything about origins. The FBI is investigating it.”
Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in a statement that the “Chinese government is firmly opposed to any cyber criminal activity, including hacking . . . [and] is ready to cooperate with the international community to combat against it.”
He also said that “any blame against China in this [latest incident] is groundless and with an ulterior motive.”
Nevertheless, Google traced the attack on its e-mail accounts to Lanxiang Vocational School in Jinan. The Chinese military often uses computer scientists trained at the school.
The same school was blamed for a cyber attack against Google in a separate incident last year. The incident prompted Google to transfer its Internet services for China to Hong Kong to put it out of reach of Chinese censors.
About the same time, Internet service provider Yahoo blamed Chinese hackers for attacking its e-mail service.
The Obama administration responded to the latest Google hacking incident Thursday on the same day the House Energy and Commerce Committee considered the possibility of a new federal law to improve Internet security.
A bill set to be introduced soon would require Internet companies to notify customers promptly when their personal data is hacked.
“Consumers have a right to know when their personal information has been compromised and companies have a responsibility to promptly alert them,” said Rep. Mary Bono Mack (R-Calif.), chairwoman of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee that held the hearing Thursday.
Witnesses included officials from Sony Corp. and Alliance Data Systems Corporation’s Epsilon Data Management unit. Both companies have been victims of recent high-profile hacking attacks.
Millions of customers of the companies had their names, e-mail addresses and credit card numbers accessed by the hackers.
The lawmakers criticized the company executives for failing to adequately protect the private information and for not notifying their customers quickly about the security breaches.
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