Today seems like it will be a Google day fist Google talks about attacks that happen last month to Google, and also they are coming out with there 2009 4th quarter results latter today. This is not not about that, this is about the attacks on Google last month, and what they intend to do.
Google did some investigating of the attack and it turned out that the attacks were coming form China (Surprise Surprise). It also turns out that it was not just Google that got attacked a number of other sites got attacked as well. They say they are in the process of contacting these other sites that were attacked as well.
According to Google the attack was aimed at access Gmail accounts of chine's human rights activists. Form what Google sees is that they were unsuccessful for the most part. Google say’s that only two accounts were accessed put it was not due to a flaw on there end. The accounts were most likely hacked by either a phishing scam or spyware on the user’s computers.
Google said that they are trying to work with the Chine's government to try and work out something that will make both Google and the Chine's government happy as well. Google did state in there post
“These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered--combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web--have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China. We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.”
What could this mean if Google were to shutdown Google China? I mean other then people losing there jobs. Well will have to wait in see. Like I said earlier Google will be holding there 4th quarter results, there maybe talk of this and more of an idea what will happen to Google and China.
*UPDATE: I missed read. Google is not announcing there 4th quarter results until the January 21, 2010. I'm sorry if this has caused any problems.
