Google Cyber Attacks Sought Targets via Social Networks
Beijing – Those who conducted
the recent cyber attacks against Google (NASD: GOOG) in China first sourced employees on
social networks to identify their friends, and then pose as those friends in a
bid to get the employees to click on a malware link, the Financial Times
reported.
"We’re seeing a lot more up-front reconnaissance, understanding
who the players are at the company and how to reach them," George Kurtz,
chief technology officer at security firm McAfee, told the Financial Times.
"Someone went to the trouble to backtrack: ‘Let me look at their friends,
who I can target as a secondary person.’"
The report also states that
Google is investigating the possibility of whether the hackers were helped by
insiders at its offices in China.
After the attacks, Google decided to stop censoring its search results in China, and is
currently mulling a complete exit from the country.
However, the Associated Press reports that, even if it should exit the search
market in China,
Google wishes to maintain a development center, advertising sales operation and
mobile phone business in the country, and is currently in delicate negotiations with China towards those ends.
Related Links:
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(Financial Times)
