Security ... think about it!
Without directly accusing the Chinese government, Google said that in mid-December it became aware that sophisticated attacks from China had resulted in theft of intellectual property. Attackers also tried to access the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists, with limited success, Google revealed. Google went public and insisted it will no longer adhere to the Chinese government's online censorship rules, even though that may mean ending business operations there. In doing so, Google has taken a stand that could have historic ramifications politically and defies conventional reactions to security incidents, many say. "When these kinds of attacks happen, no company wants to step forward and say 'it happened to us,'" notes Mary Landesman, senior security researcher at ScanSafe. But Google, which "has the technological ability to make credible assertions" by declaring it happened to them, "is shedding light on a problem that everyone in the security industry has been talking about and worrying about."