A few weeks ago a story broke around Google being hacked into by a group of people that were trying to access the email accounts of Human Rights activists that support changes in China. While the details of this break-in are widely reported, very few actual details about the break-in have been reported. Google has said that they have evidence that it is China but haven’t released the evidence. Now it is being reported that Google is asking for the NSA’s help in trying to understand and filter through the information they have. There are various opinions on the matter which can be quite strong because Google has reported that it might withdraw if China doesn’t relax its policies on Internet filtering. The meaning behind this post isn’t to debate my opinion on what Google is doing in regards to China. But what bothers me is that Google is freely handing over information about their customers to the NSA. The part that bothers me is that they aren’t releasing what exactly the NSA is going to do. While I can understand wanting to get more help on understanding the break-in, what worries me is the last line in the article which I have provided a link to below. In the article it ends quoting a 2009 report saying basically that the government is now “putting the art of breaking into and extracting data from enemy computer systems and engaging in computer attacks”. While the break-in of Google is astounding and I don’t like the idea of anyone reading my emails, was this possibly a “counter attack” of something we have done? Also, should the government be doing something that will so blatantly affect the American people without the American people knowing about it? Or is all this just another “Casualty of War”?
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7015973.ece
http://www.pcworld.com/article/188581/the_googlensa_alliance_questions_and_answers.html
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/188558/google_and_the_nsa_necessary_allies.html
(picture from)http://www.flickr.com/photos/36498826@N02/4172614078/
{ 4 } Comments
Interesting and more interesting. Actually, I would be highly surprised if the NSA or CIA isn’t actively hacking email & other records across the world. It would surprise me if we didn’t hack Chinese emails too.
This is a tough issue. I want the most secure email possible but am more afraid of the NSA then hackers. What can Google do to make their cooperation with the NSA more transparent?
“Hackers from China”, a nice excuse for official cooperation with the NSA.
I think some sort of annonomization needs to occur. While I am not one that distrusts the government as a whole, I think that google needs to tell exactly what they are doing with the information and what information is being transfered. Because this has to do with allegedly another country who might be “attacking” us I think the government has a place in it and has the right to ask. Whether Google should have said yes or just we will give you our findings. The reason they are giving is that they don’t have the expertise to do this is a joke. I don’t believe for a second that at the least Google could have hired a consultant to give them the same, if not better, answers then the NSA could. Most of the consultants in this area of expertise are retired NSA people who know how things work in there and can help prepare the information. Interesting questions, but I guess it boils down to what works best for Google as a company.