America’s unofficial internet war with China continues.  Recently, Google told off the Chinese government, saying the search giant would no longer censor their site’s search results.  This was in response to a series of hacks on Chinese human rights activists, potentially by (or in connection to) the Chinese government.  Well, now it looks like China may have been sanctioning hackers since 2008.

Christian Science Monitor reports that three gas and oil companies — ExxonMobil, Marathon Oil and ConocoPhillips — were the target of Chinese hackers in ‘08.  Apparently, the hackers were after all-important, ultra-secret “bid value” documents, which shows the value and location of oil worldwide. Classified information definitely flowed out of the computers of high level oil executives, who were the victims of these attacks.

Experts say that China has many hacker clubs, which are watched closely by their government.  Are hackers being watched closely or getting recruited? Seems like we don’t know for sure, but many people are very suspicious, especially since the government is such a powerful force in China.

Luckily, American hackers are ready to respond.  We refuse to take this lying down, and America is ready to fight!  Check out our newest and brightest hackers in action:

Source: CSM

Picture Source: Roving Insight

Related posts:

1. Google Dumps Chinese Search Engine Censorship
2. Google To End Censorship In China
3. Will Kevin Costner Save Us from the Gulf Oil Spill?

While surprising, the action isn’t unprompted. According to a Google blog post, it is in response to a security attack that sought to spy on human rights activists.

… We have evidence to suggest that a primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. Based on our investigation to date we believe their attack did not achieve that objective. Only two Gmail accounts appear to have been accessed, and that activity was limited to account information (such as the date the account was created) and subject line, rather than the content of e-mails themselves.

Third, as part of this investigation but independent of the attack on Google, we have discovered that the accounts of dozens of U.S.-, China- and Europe-based Gmail users who are advocates of human rights in China appear to have been routinely accessed by third parties. These accounts have not been accessed through any security breach at Google, but most likely via phishing scams or malware placed on the users’ computers.

Google says it will take a “new approach to China.” And by new approach, Google means that it could shut down Chinese offices completely.

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. We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.

The Google move could be important for free speech, even if it comes off as a little dubious. The Google China office employs about 800 people at last count — 800 well-paid people that would be out of work. By threatening a total shutdown of what has become a huge player for the Chinese Internet, China may loosen some restrictions.

Google initially agreed to omit Web content that the country’s government found objectionable and the debate became a struggle for execs trying to align the censorship with their “don’t be evil” motto.

Via Google.

Related posts:

1. Google Dumps Chinese Search Engine Censorship
2. Did China Attack US Oil With Their Elite Cyberspies?
3. Google Under Fire By German Privacy Advocates