The account hijackings were a result of stolen passwords, likely by malware installed on victims' computers or through victims' responses to e-mails from malicious hackers posing as trusted sources. That type of hack is named phishing. Gmail's security systems themselves were not compromised, Google said.
The company believes the phishing assault emanated from Jinan, China. In addition to the U.S. government personnel, other targets included South Korean government officials & federal workers of several other Asian countries, Chinese political activists, military personnel & journalists.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton addressed the issue Thursday morning.
"The Department of Homeland Security is aware of Google's message to its customers," said Chris Ortman, a spokesman for the agency. "We are working with Google & our federal partners to review the matter, offer analysis of any malicious activity, & create solutions to mitigate further risk."
The news comes a tiny over a year after a separate hack originating from China affected Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. In that case, attackers could break through Google's security systems, & Gmail accounts were hacked.
"Google informed the State Department of this situation yesterday in advance of its public announcement," he said. "These allegations are very serious, they take them seriously, we are looking in to them, & because this will be an ongoing inquiry I would refer you to first Google for any details that they can share at this time, & to the FBI, which will be conducting the inquiry."
On Thursday, after the latest cyber assault, a Chinese official insisted that his government takes the assaults seriously.
That cyber assault set off a series of events that finally led to Google ending its agreement with the Chinese government to censor definite search results, & the company physically moved its servers in a foreign country.
This time around, the hack appears larger in scope -- but Google itself was not attacked. A person with knowledge of the attack's details said there was no apparent correlation between last year's assault & this.
"We firmly oppose computer hacking or any illegal activity that harms net security & will severely punish anyone engaging in such activity according to law," said foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei. "Computer hacking is an international issue & China is as well as a victim. Any accusation linking China to such activity is baseless & with ulterior motives."
A spokesman from Google declined to comment on how the company obtained the information about the latest hack. Public information, user reports & a third-party hacking weblog called Contagio was used to select the scope, targets & source of the assault.
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