Chinese mastermind behind the Google hack found, government links discovered

Filed under: Internet, Security, Google

The Chinese hacker behind the attacks on Google and other prominent Silicon Valley corporations has been found. Perhaps the term 'cracker' or 'security consultant' is more accurate though, because he didn't launch the attacks himself: he just created the proof-of-concept IE6 exploit code.

The security consultant doesn't work directly with the government, but as a researcher his work and findings would have been accessible by the Chinese government and its agencies. It's a tenuous link without direct government ties and it's still possible that someone else hacked the author to get his code -- but it seems unlikely in my opinion, given the scale of the attack.

In further news, the attack itself came from Shanghai Jiaotong University and Lanxiang Vocational School, with the former boasting one of the best security departments in the country, replete with veteran government cyber commanders. Jiaotong has a very strictly-monitored and secure internal network too, making it unlikely that the Google attack could've been routed through it.

The plot will continue to thicken, but we may never see a real resolution. Just do the world a favor and upgrade from IE6 -- and pressure your system administrators to do the same!

[via ReadWriteWeb]

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Chinese mastermind behind the Google hack found, government links discovered originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 23 Feb 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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