Google has said precious little about the scope and targets of the cyber attacks that struck the company and more than 20 other firms last year.
But now, a fresh report citing a person familiar with the company’s investigation claims that hackers operating from China breached the company’s password service, the central hub that controls authentication and access to much of Google’s portfolio of online products and services.
eSecurity Planet reports on the latest details of the breach.
When Google went public in January with revelations that it and 20 other companies had been targeted by a sophisticated group of hackers operating from China, it also threatened to close down its Web properties in that country unless authorities relaxed their content-filtering requirements, a gambit that steered the conversation toward issues of censorship and away from the attacks themselves.
Little has been known about the precise nature of the attacks or their intended targets.
But a new report, citing a person with direct knowledge of the investigation, is claiming that the hackers were able to compromise Google’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) password system, the single-sign-on mechanism that gives employees and millions of users central access to the company’s myriad online products and services.