Phishing From Behind the Great Firewall

By Brad

Yesterday, Google announced it has discovered a malware and phishing attack on its popular Gmail service. From the company’s official blog:

Through the strength of our cloud-based security and abuse detection systems, we recently uncovered a campaign to collect user passwords, likely through phishing. This campaign, which appears to originate from Jinan, China, affected what seem to be the personal Gmail accounts of hundreds of users including, among others, senior U.S. government officials, Chinese political activists, officials in several Asian countries (predominantly South Korea), military personnel and journalists.

As Cecilia Kang and Ellen Nakashima of The Washington Post report, Google’s accusation didn’t sit well with Chinese officials:

[The accusation] drew angry denials from Chinese government officials on Thursday, with a foreign ministry spokesman calling the accusation “a fabrication out of thin air.”

Asked repeatedly at a news conference about the hacking, the spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the accusations against China are “unacceptable.”