Slashdot Mirror
Google Investigating Chinese Employees
BluePeppers writes "The Guardian is reporting that Google China is investigating its staff about The Incident. '"We're not commenting on rumor and speculation. This is an ongoing investigation and we simply cannot comment on the details," a Google spokeswoman said. Security analysts told Reuters the malicious software or malware used in the attack was a modification of a trojan called Hydraq. A trojan is a hidden program allowing unauthorized access to a computer. The analysts said the sophistication in the attack was in knowing whom to attack, not the malware itself.'"
I didn't know they could go back in time and undo the incident. Very impressive!
Why should Google be surprised. The funny thing is that all Google will be able to do is fire that person. And then they will get to take a job with a Baidu (or may already be working for them).
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
I do not think that word means what you think it means.
"The cost of freedom is eternal vigilance." -Thomas Jefferson
After the investigation, of course they will invite every Google China employee to join them in the USA for a presentation of the results...!
Actually, that's the whole investigation. People who have "family obligations" or who are "afraid of airplanes" are the ones to look at!
Thank God you explained what a trojan does. I almost thought I was on a tech website and the community would know that definition.
Irregardless of the actual story content, I find the poster's use of "in lieu" to be the penultimate atrocity vis-a-vis the English language.
Even as you read this, your pants are strangling your loins! Aaa!
Full disclosure: I'm a Google employee in China. The truth is that 95% of all Google employees in China work for the Chinese gNO CARRIER
If you're trying to say that Google China is investigating their staff after the recent security breach, then you should say that they're doing so _in light of_ the breach.
If they were interviewing staff _in lieu of_ the breach, then it would mean that they wanted to have the breach, but decided to cancel it and replace it with interviews.
I'll ignore the misused "it's" in the first line, too. :)
I bet it was your run of the mill social engineering. Someone on the attacking side befriended someone on the inside and either coaxed the information out, or just waited until they mentioned it in passing. Once they knew who to target, they could then pump this employee to see if the attack was having any effect, from the perspective of an insider.
It could be a Facebook friend, it could be a normal face-to-face friend, or it might be a "swallow". Governments certainly use this method of social engineering, but I would be quite surprised if companies do not do it as well.
Mal-2
How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
The analysts said the sophistication in the attack was in knowing whom to attack, not the malware itself
They were accessing mail, right?
C:\> ping mail.google.com
pinging googlemail.l.google.com [74.125.127.18]
Point of entry, anyone?
the ultimate atrocity is the poster's use of "it's"?
... is In Lieu, you insensitive clods!
The Guardian is reporting that Google China is investigating it's staff in lieu of The Incident.
I do not think those words mean what you think they mean.
"Work is the curse of the drinking classes." -Oscar Wilde
Come on, guys, it's not "in lieu of". "In lieu of" means "instead; in place of; as a substitute for". So that description makes absolutely no sense. The submitter probably means "in light of".
I know this is just slashdot, but we we have computers and the internet where all the grammar nazis have left us neat hints how to use language correctly, if not effectively. Articles like this make us all look like gibbering chimps.
you should read everything on the internet as if it had "but I'm probably talking out of my ass" appended to it.
Why can't people tell the difference between it's and its?
Somewhere in Mountain View, servers are now analyzing all activity of Google's employees in China. And their friend. And their friend's friends. And the people they email. And everyone who got in range of a Google security camera. And all the their friends. And the people they email.
google googles you!
Espionage is a BIG risk in all Overseas Outsourcing. The overseas employees (or foreigners brought in on L-1 or H-1b visas) are ultimately loyal to their home country. If their country orders them to spy, turn over Intellectual Property, etc., don't be surprised! Google is not the big risk. Microsoft, for example, has a big tech center in China. One must wonder what sorts of spying, back doors, trojans, are being planted in Windows!
Chinese companies copied part for part GM cars and as far as I know, nothing came of it. You could literally take the door off the Chevy and put a door from the Chinese car company on it. We don't impose any trade sanctions, we just keep buying their stuff.
I'd find the link but I don't have time.
Hopefully this google flap will get people to pay attention to how they are catching up.
A trojan is a hidden program allowing unauthorized access to a computer.
Yes thanks! This is definitely news to the average /. reader. I never knew that!
"Google Investigating Chinese Employees"
Something occurred to me after I read this. I get a slight twinge that Google is more an Authority, instead of a private corporation. Its odd, If I read "Microsoft investigates..." I envision some staid corporate fumbling about, yet with Google, I feel they are almost Law Enforcement like, with big tenticles of power Joe Bloggs couldnt understand.
Sorry, I have watching "The Wire" on DVD. Its ruined my perceptions on how things (might) work.
In post Patriot Act America, the library books scan you.
I didn't know they could go back in time and undo the incident. Very impressive!
...Although, if they had done a thorough job, there wouldn't be this Slashdot story, would there?
It must have worked. Apparently something so significant happened that people can just call it "The Incident" and expect others to know about it. Yet I've never heard of anything happening to Google, or originating from Google significant enough and shocking enough to be titled "The Incident". (The worst I've heard is about their camera cars going up the occasional private road). Their temporal cleanup crews must be pretty good.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
Hate to say this...as it does sound racist, but I know for a fact that most of the chinese employees within a company that deals with
china, will side to help the chinese side of the deal rather then their own company that is dealing with china, also even went so far as to give out confidential info and deal breaking intel to manufacturers so as to be able to charge top dollar when they could, based on types of situations that came up.
For me, it might sound racist, but I truly believe that they have been brainwashed to really stand by their country, even when they are of different citizenship, and even live abroad...they will still report back to the motherland to help in anyway they can.
Is this wrong, the jews have been doing this for eons, so I guess not really, as it would be hypocritical to say this, but
I do believe that a religion and way of life, is much different then a country's dictator's point of view of what life should be.
I know i might get spammed with a lot of comments on my view points, but I have to say, we did this to ourselves.
If we allow muslems to come into our country and force us to change our country's ways to allow them to continue living the way they lived back home, then why did they leave int he first place. If you want to join the RCMP and then tell them that they are not allowed to ask you to remove your turban to put on the proper RCMP uniform, you should understand that this is part of the RCMP religion, to wear the RCMP hat.
As for chinese, if they come into the country and work for a canadian/amercian country, why would they try to still make china the
more profitable partner in the deal....they left that country, for what ever reason...seems like they are almost doing this on purpose as if told to do so by the dictator himself...?
WHOOSH!
Over-the-top Response Guy! Giving "Over-the-Top Responses" since 1970.
... they would interrogate these people like the ChiComs would. Make them feel right at home!
Anyone know if Google could bring their Google China employees to the US and then have them charged with industrial espionage? I think a quick way of narrowing the field of candidates is to float this out there and see which rats leave the ship.
If Google finds anything, this could have serious reprecussions for foreign companies hiring in China and Chinese students seeking green cards/employment in the US, especially in high-tech areas. Does anyone else think that mandatory background checks might be put in place to screen candidates, beyond simply assessing technical skills?
If so, it's a good time to be Indian or Taiwanese/Korean, if you're competing with Chinese candidates.
Though I do hope if this doesn't result in hiring discrimination against Chinese candidates; most of them are bright cookies, and there may come a day when US tech companies need them more than they need us.
In the US, the lowest average educational metrics or scores pretty much all come from the larger urban areas within the public school system. There are exceptions of course, but generally speaking, this is the case. It is so bad in some areas they have contrived to cook the scoring, giving higher than deserved grades to schools. Your largest urban area, even after massaging the metrics, still scores in the bottom five percent of the state's overall scores.
Here is one reference: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2009/09/09/2009-09-09_bloombergs_bogus_school_report_cards_destroy_real_progres
more
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2006-06-20-dropout-rates_x.htm
You might want to check your typical urban elitist prejudices against a little research first.
Google probably isn't firing them because the ones you find are the sloppy ones, and the ones you WANT to find are more clever and will require some pressure on the sloppier ones... which you lose if you terminate them as employees.
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
That Google's plug-pulling is more about IP theft concern rather than any kind of moral concern. Otherwise where was Google's moral concern when NSA was found out to be monitoring (or spying on) all communications going in and out of the U.S?(Don't tell me Google wasn't affected). Meanwhile, I'm surprised to find out that keywords like "tiananmen", "massacre", "Mao Zedong" are searchable with Google.com from within China(confirmed in two far-away locations), which means GFW is not blocking them. Maybe there is some progress on the negotiations between Google and CCP?
So where are the genii now who said this is unprecedentedly sophisticated by a commercial standard?
Was about to mod you up until you suggested Google kill it's own (compromised) employees. That's stupid on so many levels.
I whole-heartedly agree, however that was merely intended sarcasm directed at the bar that the PRC has set when dealing with dissenters. A bit too subtle on the toung-in-cheek, I suppose.
Google probably isn't firing them because the ones you find are the sloppy ones, and the ones you WANT to find are more clever and will require some pressure on the sloppier ones... which you lose if you terminate them as employees.
True, but this brings me back to my sarcastic comment; by applying the PRC's solution to most of their problems, you eliminate 90% of the problem. Sure it amounts to setting the house on fire to roast a pig, but it gets the job done.
Keep in mind, I don't approve of attempted mass-murder as a general rule. However, I'm really getting sick of all the malicious traffic coming out of China, and I'm curious to see a corporation apply that tactic.
Just to watch events unfold that result in a "Terms of Employment" that would enable a legalized Supervillian-Henchman dynamic would be immensely interesting. If anyone could fund the legal research required, that would be Google.
"When I am king, you will be first against the wall..."
Curious, is this /. post and its subject, http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/jan/18/china-google-cyber-attack, searchable within China?
"I do hope if this doesn't result in hiring discrimination against Chinese candidates"
"A trojan is a hidden program allowing unauthorized access to a computer."
A Trojan may also be an ethnic Chinese employee in US or China working for Google.
Things are not always what they appear to be.
What if Chinese students or employees still have family ties to China? A good number of those ties either have Communist Party roots, coercive pressure. national loyalty, or subtle influence. Some Chinese students were in the position to go to school, get visas, or come to the US inadvertently based on their family and political ties. A background check will never uncover Party history or relationships that might make an employee a risk.