U.S. enables Chinese hacking of Google

cnn ^ | 23 Jan 2010 | Bruce Schneier

[flamefront]

U.S. enables Chinese hacking of Google

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Google says hackers from China got into its Gmail system
• Bruce Schneier says hackers exploited feature put into system at behest of U.S. government
• When governments get access to private communications, they invite abuse, he says
• Government surveillance and control of Internet is flourishing, he says

: Bruce Schneier is a security technologist and author of "Beyond Fear: Thinking Sensibly About Security in an Uncertain World." Read more of his writing at www.schneier.com.

-- Google made headlines when it went public with the fact that Chinese hackers had penetrated some of its services, such as Gmail, in a politically motivated attempt at intelligence gathering. The news here isn't that Chinese hackers engage in these activities or that their attempts are technically sophisticated -- we knew that already -- it's that the U.S. government inadvertently aided the hackers.

In order to comply with government search warrants on user data, Google created a backdoor access system into Gmail accounts. This feature is what the Chinese hackers exploited to gain access. ...

Systems like these invite misuse: ...

Why does anyone think criminals won't be able to use the same system to steal bank account and credit card information, ...

The problem is that such control makes us all less safe. Whether the eavesdroppers are the good guys or the bad guys, these systems put us all at greater risk. Communications systems that have no inherent eavesdropping capabilities are more secure than systems with those capabilities built in. And it's bad civic hygiene to build technologies that could someday be used to facilitate a police state.

[flamefront]

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Bruce Schneier.

And just like government regulation forced the mortgage crisis, so too have we government created internet security flaws.

[KoRn]

The Chinese probably got in like this:

#Telnet (google mail server)

login as:root

password:1234

[root@ ~]# Yay!

[no-s]

And just like government regulation forced the mortgage crisis, so too have we government created mandated internet security flaws.

Fixed it for ya.

[bamahead]

In order to comply with government search warrants on user data, Google created a backdoor access system into Gmail accounts. This feature is what the Chinese hackers exploited to gain access.



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[MetaThought]

And here I thought that the sooper-sekrit password was “Chuck Norris”