Cyberattack draws renewed attention to Internet freedom

An alleged cyberattack by the Chinese government into systems operated by Google and other U.S. companies, including federal contractors, has prompted the U.S. government to revisit the complicated issue of Internet freedom.

Google on Tuesday announced it had detected an intrusion into its corporate infrastructure from China that attempted to penetrate the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. According to a statement on the search firm's blog, officials discovered that at least 20 other large companies were similarly targeted, and it is notifying the affected businesses and U.S. authorities.

VeriSign iDefense, a security consulting firm, conducted a separate investigation of the attack and reported that the companies targeted were Google Inc., several high-tech companies based in Silicon Valley, financial institutions and defense contractors.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the administration wants answers from the Chinese government in response to Google's claims.

"We have been briefed by Google on these allegations, which raise very serious concerns and questions," Clinton said in a statement on Tuesday. "We look to the Chinese government for an explanation. The ability to operate with confidence in cyberspace is critical in a modern society and economy."

The Obama administration has had difficulty protecting Internet freedom during the past year. Iran, China and other U.S. trading partners often suppress Web access to silence political dissent. Complicating matters, it is sometimes unclear which agency has jurisdiction over Internet freedom. Trade officials last summer had some success combating censorship, when they intervened to stop China from forcing U.S. companies to install so-called Green Dam filtering software in computer equipment. That was possible because trade rules forbid requiring U.S. businesses to buy or use products from China in their goods.

But the administration, particularly the State Department, is basically powerless when the filtering and infiltration methods fall outside trade rules. Foreign policy moves often require orchestrated actions by the Commerce, State and Treasury departments, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, and other agencies.

Defense officials said as a matter of policy they cannot comment on specific cyber intrusions, but the department aggressively monitors its information networks for breaches. Defense has "procedures to address threats to DoD information on defense contractor networks," spokesman Eric Butterbaugh said.

Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, on Wednesday said he is drafting legislation to strengthen the nation's cybsersecurity architecture.

"Google has provided an enormous service to Internet users the world over by publicly sharing news of attacks it says came from inside China against its Gmail users," Lieberman said in a statement. "Educating Internet users of these threats and vulnerabilities is key to thwarting such attacks."

The search firm said it went public with the information largely because of concerns about human rights.

"This information goes to the heart of a much bigger global debate about freedom of speech," stated a Tuesday blog entry by David Drummond, Google senior vice president for corporate development and chief legal officer. "We launched Google.cn in January 2006 in the belief that the benefits of increased access to information for people in China and a more open Internet outweighed our discomfort in agreeing to censor some results."

In response to the technology breach, Google modified the architecture of its systems to bolster security. The attempted human rights violations prompted the firm to end its agreement with China to censor search results on Google.cn.

"Over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all," Drummond blogged. "We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China."