New Report Places China at the Heart of Google Attack

Researchers at VeriSign’s iDefense security lab have been busy tracing the source of the large-scale cyberattack detailed earlier this week by Google. The team has successfully found the origin of the attack and has confirmed that it was indeed initiated by the Chinese government. IDefense’s report states that the attack was deployed via PDF files that capitalized on vulnerabilities in Adobe software, though Adobe has disputed the claim.

IDefense has also linked the recent attack to a similar attack on U.S. companies that occurred in July. The same command-and-control servers were part of both attacks.

The news comes at a time of increasing tension between Google, China and the U.S. government. For its part, the Obama Administration has shown support of Google. According to a Reuters report, a U.S. diplomat is seeking an explanation of the attack from China. No reply has yet been received. [via Ars Technica and Reuters]