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I guess I can disclose this now... I got a Google warning of my gmail being access from the Jinan province back in January with also a break-in of twitter acc

by shareme 15y ago

I guess I can disclose this now... I got a Google warning of my gmail being access from the Jinan province back in January with also a break-in of twitter account. Since my security changes no break-ins. Despite China's denials the threat is real.

Volpe 15y ago
The Peoples daily article didn't deny the threat, it objected with the obvious implication google were making about the hacks originating from within the government. Why did google choose to publicise the event at all? surely that only tells the attackers to find a new attack vector (rather than thinking there existing vector is still okay).
- murz 15y ago
  From the horses mouth: "we believe that being open about these security issues helps users better protect their information online." The attacks relied on the victim's naivety and lack of knowledge. If you read the blog post [1], I think it's pretty clear that the purpose was to educate users on how to improve their security when using Google products. [1] http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/ensuring-your-information-is-safe.html http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/ensuring-your-informa...
  - Volpe 15y ago
    You can educate, without expressing specific details of the attackers. The usual practice is to warn of potential issues, not publicise a specific attack, and then say "beware!" -- In fact the article didn't even give the common advice of 'check url, https, etc' to avoid phishing.
yannickmahe 15y ago
Nitpicking : Jinan is a city, not a province. It's the capital of the Shandong province. More relevant, it's one of the three largest military centers in China, which I'm guessing is why the attacks stem from there. This does lend credence to the idea of a government sanctioned operation. However, Jinan is also the home to one of the top computer science schools and software engineering colleges in China, so it could be just student hackers I guess (though I'm not convinced).

by shareme 15y ago

Volpe 15y ago

The Peoples daily article didn't deny the threat, it objected with the obvious implication google were making about the hacks originating from within the government. Why did google choose to publicise the event at all? surely that only tells the attackers to find a new attack vector (rather than thinking there existing vector is still okay).

murz 15y ago
From the horses mouth: "we believe that being open about these security issues helps users better protect their information online." The attacks relied on the victim's naivety and lack of knowledge. If you read the blog post [1], I think it's pretty clear that the purpose was to educate users on how to improve their security when using Google products. [1] http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/ensuring-your-information-is-safe.html http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/ensuring-your-informa...
- Volpe 15y ago
  You can educate, without expressing specific details of the attackers. The usual practice is to warn of potential issues, not publicise a specific attack, and then say "beware!" -- In fact the article didn't even give the common advice of 'check url, https, etc' to avoid phishing.

yannickmahe 15y ago

Nitpicking : Jinan is a city, not a province. It's the capital of the Shandong province. More relevant, it's one of the three largest military centers in China, which I'm guessing is why the attacks stem from there. This does lend credence to the idea of a government sanctioned operation. However, Jinan is also the home to one of the top computer science schools and software engineering colleges in China, so it could be just student hackers I guess (though I'm not convinced).