November 29, 2010, 1:40PM
WikiLeaks Confirms China's Responsibility for Aurora Attacks
4 Comments
It is being reported that WikiLeaks
latest release of 250,000 diplomatic cables confirms the suspicion that China
was responsible for the Aurora attacks on Google’s computer systems in January.
Both Google and the State Department initially believed China was responsible for the attacks, but the New York Times’ reports that the release of previously confidential diplomatic cables by WikiLeaks over the weekend makes those connections more explicit.
"China's Politburo directed the intrusion into Google's computer systems in that country,” The New York Times report goes on to say, “[The Chinese Government] have broken into American government computers and those of Western allies… since 2002”
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Threatpost reported earlier this year that the attacks were aimed at gaining access to the Gmail accounts of Chinese dissidents and human rights activists. Following the attacks, Google demanded that its search engine be uncensored in mainland China. China then claimed censorship was a non-negotiable legal requirement, and Google temporarily ceased their operations in China, redirecting Chinese traffic through Google’s uncensored Hong Kong site. However, Google has since given in to China’s demands, ending the redirect, and allowing their search engine to be censored in China.
The full report on recently released diplomatic cables from WikiLeaks can be found on the New York Times website.
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Comments
I have been looking for this article in the release, and didn't find a trace of it. Have you located the specific cable or do you think NYT had access to more than just the current release?
I think the NYT and others have more than what they released today. I'd expect to see further releases in the days to come.
It's just a blurb, but I found it by searching(ctrl F) 'google' on the NYT page the article links to.
Here is the actual text:
A global computer hacking effort: China’s Politburo directed the intrusion into Google’s computer systems in that country, a Chinese contact told the American Embassy in Beijing in January, one cable reported. The Google hacking was part of a coordinated campaign of computer sabotage carried out by government operatives, private security experts and Internet outlaws recruited by the Chinese government. They have broken into American government computers and those of Western allies, the Dalai Lama and American businesses since 2002, cables said.
You can do site:wikileaks.org or whatever it is google wikileaks site as it is being archived (one news site nicely pointed out).
While I believe it is blatantly obvious those hacks were chinese gov sanctioned, one source, admittedly, could be anyone... so China still is not... caught... red handed... (heh heh, China, red handed... ohhh, nm...)
-A