Aurora Attackers Were Looking For Google's Surveillance Database

An anonymous reader writes "When in early 2010 Google shared with the public that they had been breached in what became known as the Aurora attacks, they said that the attackers got their hands on some source code and were looking to access Gmail accounts of Tibetan activists. What they didn't make public is that the hackers have also accessed a database containing information about court-issued surveillance orders that enabled law enforcement agencies to monitor email accounts belonging to diplomats, suspected spies and terrorists. Whether this was the primary goal of the attacks as well as how much information was exfiltrated is unknown. current and former U.S. government officials interviewed by the Washington Post say that the database in question was possibly accessed in order to discover which Chinese intelligence operatives located in the U.S. were under surveillance."

Comments

Helpful hint.

[khasim]

If you're a spy or diplomat or whatever, don't use Gmail. At the very least it is subject to the US government's laws. Get yourself a secured server somewhere else.

Re:Helpful hint.

[Nidi62]

Uhm, like General Petraeus, former head of the CIA?

Seriously, if our head of the top spy agency in this country is that stupid, how stupid do you think the rest of the diplomatic or legislative folks are in DC?

He was a political appointee, what do you expect? He was actually never in any capacity a spy. He was an infantry officer and a teacher more than he was anything else until 2004 and after when he was overall commander of Iraq then Afghanistan. The director of any agency in the US is an administrator above all else.