Google evaluating its options with China

Google is revisiting its strategy for China after cyber attacks on its corporate infrastructure in December 2009, which originated from China.

Google has said that it is rethinking whether it wants to continue its presence in China in the wake of cyber attacks on its corporate infrastructure that originated from the country.

In a blogpost, Google SVP and Chief Legal Officer David Drummond said the mid-December attack was highly sophisticated and targeted attack Google's corporate infrastructure, and it originated from China. The attack is said to have resulted in the theft of intellectual property.

Google says that as part of its investigation, it has discovered that at least 20 other corporations, including Internet, finance, technology, media and chemical companies, were similar targets. Google says it is now in the process of notifying those companies and working with relevant US authorities. It said the primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists, though the attackers failed to acieve that objective, as per the present status of its investigation. It said only two Gmail accounts appeared to have been accessed, and that activity was limited to account information (such as the date the account was created) and subject line, rather than the content of emails themselves. Its investigations also revealed that, independent of the attack on Google, accounts of dozens of US, China and Europe-based Gmail users, notably advocates of human rights in China, appear to have been routinely accessed by third parties, most likely via phishing scams or malware placed on the users' computers.

Google now says it is re-evaluating whether it wants to be present in China, arguably one of its largest markets, given that this issue heightens the global debate about freedom of speech. It said that since launching Google.cn in January 2006, the company agreed to censor some results in the belief that the benefits of increased access to information for people in China and a more open Internet. “Now, 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,” the blogpost reads.

News reports cited sources as saying that if Google were to exit China, its would have a minimal impact on the company's revenues even though it could have more long-term effects on its long-term growth rate, mainly since China is one of the most populous regions of the world where, according to the China Internet Network Information Center around 338 million people were using the Internet as of June 2009. Reports also said that the US government had taken cognizance of Google's statement, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had asked Beijing to explain the cyber attacks that originated from its geography against Google and at least 20 other firms.

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