Ethics

Google Hacked Due to U.S. Government Policy

By Ed Brayton

Bruce Schneier has an important article on the CNN website about the recent Chinese hacking of Google, which he says was facilitated by our own government's demands that Google build a backdoor into all gmail accounts.

Google made headlines when it went public with the fact that Chinese hackers had penetrated some of its services, such as Gmail, in a politically motivated attempt at intelligence gathering. The news here isn't that Chinese hackers engage in these activities or that their attempts are technically sophisticated -- we knew that already -- it's that the U.S. government inadvertently aided the hackers.

In order to comply with government search warrants on user data, Google created a backdoor access system into Gmail accounts. This feature is what the Chinese hackers exploited to gain access.

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on February 05, 2010 (boomark / email).