SEO Toronto

In mid-December 2010, Google detected a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on their corporate infrastructure originating from China that resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google. The investigation discovered that at least twenty other large companies from a wide range of businesses–including the Internet, finance, technology, media and chemical sectors–have been similarly targeted.

Evidence suggests that a primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. Based on investigations to date Google believes their attack did not achieve that objective. They discovered that the accounts of dozens of U.S.-, China- and Europe-based Gmail users who are advocates of human rights in China appear to have been routinely accessed by third parties. These accounts have not been accessed through any security breach at Google, but most likely via phishing scams or malware placed on the users’ computers. These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered–combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web–have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China.

Google decided they are no longer willing to continue censoring results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks they will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which they could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. They recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.