Google is investigating whether one or more employees may have helped facilitate a cyber-attack from China that the US search giant said it was a victim of in mid-December, two sources said.
Google, the world's most popular search engine, said last week it may pull out of the world's biggest Internet market by users after reporting it had been hit by a "sophisticated" cyber-attack on its network that resulted in theft of its intellectual property.
The sources, who are familiar with the situation, said that the attack, which targeted people who have access to specific parts of Google networks, may have been facilitated by people working in Google China's office.
"We're not commenting on rumour and speculation. This is an ongoing investigation, and we simply cannot comment on the details," a Google spokeswoman said.
The investigation that one or more Google employees may have been involved in the Google breach would represent one facet of a broader attack that Google said targeted at least 20 other companies.
Adobe Systems Inc, Juniper Network Inc and Rackspace Hosting Inc have all acknowledged being targets and a person familiar with the situation said Yahoo Inc was also a target.
George Kurtz, the chief technology officer of security software maker McAfee Inc, wrote in the McAfee corporate blog that the targeted and coordinated nature of the attacks on various companies made them the most sophisticated cyberattack the company had seen in years
Security analysts said the malicious software (malware) used in the Google attack was a modification of a trojan called Hydraq. A trojan is malware that, once inside a computer, allows someone unauthorised access. The sophistication in the attack was in knowing whom to attack, not the malware itself, the analysts said.
Chinese media, citing unnamed sources, reported that some Google China employees were denied access to internal networks after January 13th, while some staff were put on leave and others transferred to different offices in Google's Asia Pacific operations. Google said it would not comment on its business operations.
Reuters
