Chinese Fraudsters Try to Steel Passwords From Google

They targeted Sr U.S. officials gmail accounts for passwords. China says the claims are base less….

“Google Inc. (GOOG), owner of the world’s most popular search engine, said hackers tried to steal passwords from hundreds of Gmail users, targeting the accounts of government officials in the U.S. and Asia.

The campaign, which appears to have originated in Jinan, China, probably used a so-called phishing scam to collect passwords with the goal of monitoring e-mail content, Eric Grosse, engineering director on the Google Security Team, said in a blog post. The company said it detected and disrupted the campaign, secured users’ accounts and notified authorities.

“We believe that being open about these security issues helps users better protect their information online,” Grosse said on the blog.

The campaign against Gmail users comes amid growing concern about network security, prompted by recent cyber attacks against Sony Corp. and Lockheed Martin Corp. Google said last year it was the victim of attacks against its systems that originated in China and focused on human-rights activists’ accounts. Google said it was no longer willing to censor search results in China, and then started redirecting users there to its Hong Kong service.”

Full article