Like many other well-known organizations, we face cyber attacks of varying degrees on a regular basis. In mid-December, we detected a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China that resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google. However, it soon became clear that what at first appeared to be solely a security incident–albeit a significant one–was something quite different.

First, this attack was not just on Google. As part of our investigation we have 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. We are currently in the process of notifying those companies, and we are also working with the relevant U.S. authorities.

Second, we have evidence to suggest that a primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. Based on our investigation to date we believe their attack did not achieve that objective. Only two Gmail accounts appear 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.

Third, as part of this investigation but independent of the attack on Google, we have 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.

We have already used information gained from this attack to make infrastructure and architectural improvements that enhance security for Google and for our users. In terms of individual users, we would advise people to deploy reputable anti-virus and anti-spyware programs on their computers, to install patches for their operating systems and to update their web browsers. Always be cautious when clicking on links appearing in instant messages and emails, or when asked to share personal information like passwords online. You can read more here about our cyber-security recommendations. People wanting to learn more about these kinds of attacks can read this U.S. government report (PDF), Nart Villeneuve’s blog and this presentation on the GhostNet spying incident.

We have taken the unusual step of sharing information about these attacks with a broad audience not just because of the security and human rights implications of what we have unearthed, but also because this information goes to the heart of a much bigger global debate about freedom of speech. In the last two decades, China’s economic reform programs and its citizens’ entrepreneurial flair have lifted hundreds of millions of Chinese people out of poverty. Indeed, this great nation is at the heart of much economic progress and development in the world today.

We launched Google.cn in January 2006 in the belief that the benefits of increased access to information for people in China and a more open Internet outweighed our discomfort in agreeing to censor some results. At the time we made clear that “we will carefully monitor conditions in China, including new laws and other restrictions on our services. If we determine that we are unable to achieve the objectives outlined we will not hesitate to reconsider our approach to China.”

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. 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.

The decision to review our business operations in China has been incredibly hard, and we know that it will have potentially far-reaching consequences. We want to make clear that this move was driven by our executives in the United States, without the knowledge or involvement of our employees in China who have worked incredibly hard to make Google.cn the success it is today. We are committed to working responsibly to resolve the very difficult issues raised.

Posted by David Drummond, SVP, Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer

- From the Official Google Blog

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Well, I have something really cool that I made. It is a printed circuit board pen! So, let’s let the shameless commerce commence!

Printed Circuit Board Pen - Chrome - Green PCB

Yes, that is a real honest-to-goodness circuit board in there. And those are real surface mount parts on the board.

Want to buy one? Head over to my Etsy store.

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I implemented a few of these right after I got my number a while back. Nice to see someone document them all.

Incidentally, this is the entire reason I switched from the iPhone to the Android.

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Iraqi insurgents using $26 software to monitor Predator video feeds
from Engadget by Nilay Patel

We can’t say we’ve ever heard of a $26 Russian program called SkyGrabber before, but it’s about to get famous real fast — according to the Wall Street Journal, Iraqi insurgents have been regularly using the satellite-snooping software to monitor live Predator video feeds. Apparently the Predator transmits video over an unencrypted link, so there’s no major hacking or security breach going on here, but it’s obviously a huge issue — and we’d say the bigger problem is that Pentagon officials have known about this flaw since the 1990s, but they didn’t think insurgents would figure out how to exploit it. Way to underestimate, guys. The WSJ says the military is working to encrypt all Predator feeds from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, but it’s slow going because the Predator network is more than a decade old and based on proprietary tech — too bad it’s not proprietary enough to keep prying eyes out of it.

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The documentary had picture-in-picture clips with videos about Bergensbanen, a reporter interviewing people on the train, music and two cameras pointing to the sides of the train. Because of rights, we had to remove the music and many videoclips, so we decided to make a clean frontcamera version for this download. It’s recorded on a Sony 700 camera in XDCAM HD 1080 50i. The camera has a 30 seconds buffer, making it possible to switch disks when needed. So we have a continuous recording of 7 hours.

It is Creative Commons licensed an you can grab the Torrent file, as well a read some more about the project, right here.

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In the wake of Verizon’s Droid Eris update announcement, Sprint couldn’t very well rest on its laurels and let the world go by while its Android babies grow stale on version 1.5, could it? Indeed, the company has announced today (via Twitter, of all things) that it’ll be bringing Android 2.0 to the table for its HTC Hero and Samsung Moment in the first half of 2010. Naturally, we wish they could tighten that up to the first quarter (or heck, this month, for that matter), but as far as we can tell, HTC isn’t yet done prepping Sense for 2.0 so they’re probably in a holding pattern there. As for the Moment, it’s running stock 1.5 — and we’d certainly expect it to run stock 2.0, too — so we’re not sure what the holdup is on Sammy’s end, but you can bet we’re looking forward to seeing the Google juice running in full AMOLED technicolor.

from Engadget by Chris Ziegler

Maybe T-Mobile will finally get around to updating my MyTouch soon as well?

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There has been a ton of publicity about the young woman who was jailed and facing felony charges, because she caught snippets of the film New Moon while filming parts of her sister’s birthday party. The outrage over this has been loud and widespread — causing backlash against the movie theater and the movie studio that put out the movie. Even the director of the movie was complaining about the arrest and prosecution. Realizing that this was a bad situation all around, it looks like prosecutors have come to their senses and dropped the charges against the young woman, though we still have the same ridiculous law in place that made this situation possible. Shouldn’t we also be looking to change that right about now?

from Techdirt

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I got 100%. According to this thing only 2% of the public gets them all right. Sad.

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