Hackers target Gmail accounts of U.S. officials

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Hackers target Gmail accounts of U.S. officials

Google says Chinese hackers attempted to take over email accounts of senior U.S. officials and hundreds of other prominent people.

Federal News Network Staff

June 2, 2011 11:56 am

< a min read

Google says Chinese hackers attempted to take over email accounts of senior U.S. officials and hundreds of other prominent people. The targets were tricked into sharing their Gmail passwords with so-called bad actors in China. The tricksters wanted to monitor the content of the email. Google’s servers were not hacked, the company says.

The victims include government and military personnel, Asian officials, Chinese activists and journalists, according to a Google blog post. The Washington Post reports the personal Gmail account of one Cabinet-level official was compromised.

The National Security Council, FBI and Department of Homeland Security are all working with Google to investigate the attacks.

This isn’t the first Chinese tangle involving Google. In 2010, Google blamed China for an attack on its computer networks.

This story is part of Federal News Radio’s daily Cybersecurity Update. For more cybersecurity news, click here.