FBI investigates Chinese Gmail hacking

New York, Jun 3: The United States said that its Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has started investigation on the alleged Chinese hackers cyber attack on Gmail accounts of senior US government officials, Chinese political activists, officials in several Asian countries, military personnel and journalists.

"US President Barack Obama is aware of it and is being updated on regularly," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters at his daily news conference.

"Threats to information and communications infrastructure pose a serious economic and national security challenge for the US and our partners, which is why the president has made cyber security one of his top priorities," he said.

"As with all intrusions, we employ an all-of-government approach with the appropriate agency in the lead. In this case, the FBI is coordinating a response. We're obviously aware of these reports. We're looking into these reports. We have no reason to believe, at this point, that any official US government email accounts were accessed," Carney added.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also expressed her deep concern over the issue.

"We are obviously very concerned about Google's announcement regarding a campaign that the company believes originated in China to collect the passwords of Google email account holders," she said, adding that Google informed the State Department of this situation yesterday in advance of its public announcement.

"These allegations are very serious. We take them seriously, we're looking into them, and because this will be an ongoing investigation, I would refer you to first Google for any details that they are able to share at this time and to the FBI, which will be conducting the investigation," she said.

Search engine Google on Wednesday, Jun 1, alleged that hackers from Jinan in China attempted to hack Gmail accounts of senior officials and Chinese political activists. Google said that the hackers targeted Gmail accounts by using malware and phishing scams that trick users into sharing their passwords, or by using passwords obtained by hacking other websites.

Soon after Google's accusation of Gmail hacking, Chinese government rejected the claims saying that it was "unacceptable" to blame China for all hacking attempts. Chinese officials said that China is also a victim of hacking and the reports on Chinese government supporting hacking attacks was a total fabrication.

OneIndia News