On Tuesday, Google made a strong move against communist China by refusing to continue censoring search results on its Chinese site. In the wake of cyberattacks it linked to China, Google also said it would consider shutting down operations in the Asian nation.
Google revealed a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on its corporate infrastructure that originated from China in December. That attack, Google said, resulted in a theft of the search giant’s intellectual property. In its internal investigations, Google discovered it wasn’t the only target. Large companies from many industries were also hit. Google is working to notify those companies and is working with U.S. authorities.
“We have already used information gained from this attack to make infrastructure and architectural improvements that enhance security for Google and for our users,” said David Drummond, Google’s senior vice president of corporate development and chief legal officer. “In terms of individual users, we would advise people to deploy reputable antivirus and antispyware programs on their computers, to install patches for their operating systems, and to update their web browsers.”
Freedom of Speech
The cyberattacks, which largely targeted the Gmail accounts of Chinese human-rights activists, seem to have fueled Google’s decision to stand up for freedom of speech in the communist nation. Drummond said Google launched Google.cn in January 2006. At that time, he explained, Google believed the benefits of increased access to information for people in China and a more open Internet outweighed the company’s discomfort in agreeing to censor some results.
“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,” Drummond said. “We have decided we are no longer willing to…