Information Week reports that in a blog post heard around the world, though muffled in China’s state-controlled media, Google said on Tuesday that it and at least 20 other companies in the the internet, finance, technology, media and chemical sectors had been targeted in a sophisticated cyber attack in December. Due to this attack, which resulted in the theft of unspecified intellectual property, and a hostile business climate, Google said it would stop censoring Google.cn, a decision which could lead to the closure of the company’s Chinese search service. Whether that happens will depend on how the Chinese government reacts. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday expressed concern about Google’s claims and asked the Chinese government for an explanation. She said she intended to give a speech next week “on the centrality of Internet freedom in the 21st century.” A report issued on Tuesday by iDefense, a computer security company owned by Verisign, states that 33 other companies were targeted in the attack. It also says that those responsible were working either directly on on behalf of official intelligence entities of the People’s Republic of China. “Two independent, anonymous iDefense sources in the defense contracting and intelligence consulting community confirmed that both the source IPs and drop server of the attack correspond to a single foreign entity consisting either of agents of the Chinese state or proxies thereof,” the report says…
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