Microsoft Admits Google Got Hacked Because of a Glitch in Internet Explorer
This is a tad ironic but Google is fuming mad because Chinese hackers attacked their email system by exploiting an Internet Explorer flaw. Internet Explorer 8 users should be bothered a little. The online giant announced last week that Chinese hackers accessed the email accounts of Chinese human rights dissidents. Google is already loudly threatening to pull out completely from China if the Chinese government doesn’t back off from requiring Google’s Chinese search engine to censor results that are critical of Chinese government policies. This debacle is getting worldwide attention since Google is showing some teeth against the powerful Chinese communist government. The company is not bluffing; it will bow out of the Chinese online market if the Chinese government won’t relent.
Google Got Hacked?
This new issue of Chinese hackers obtaining email access to Gmail (Google Mail, which is frequently down in many countries) is making the tense situation worse between China’s government and Google. It is obvious to all that the ‘hackers’ who opened the human rights activists’ email account are Chinese government spies. Google is right to be outraged, remember Google is the online advertising king. It will really turn off image-conscious advertisers if Google gets blamed for Chinese dissidents getting jailed because Chinese government spies found evidence of their anti-government sentiments on Google’s Gmail!
Google is even more incensed when it found out how their email system got comprised. The hackers did so by exploiting another Internet Explorer security weakness. Microsoft was quick to admit and pinpointed the said security breach a few days back, January 14, 2010. There is no available patch to this security weakness so Microsoft is advising all users of Internet Explorer to set the browser’s Internet Security level to High. Let us just wait for Microsoft to issue an update for this exploit. For the meantime, if you have a Gmail account, do not use internet explorer. Use Google Chrome instead 
by: Almario Alcaraz, Jr. via email
Comments
3 Comments/Reviews on “Microsoft Admits Google Got Hacked Because of a Glitch in Internet Explorer”
Leave a Reply / Review of “Microsoft Admits Google Got Hacked Because of a Glitch in Internet Explorer”
Admin's Notice to Readers: Please note that we do not allow comments that contain profanity, harsh personal attacks against the writer/s, contact numbers (cell phone, landline) or any form of advertisements. We will definitely remove them. Keep your comments courteous and intelligent even if they do not agree with some contents/claims we publish in this site. Thank you!
[...] tension between the American and Chinese government. According to Microsoft’s press release, Microsoft admitted Google being hacked through Internet Explorer’s security weakness. After the organized cyber attacks or hacking [...]
One thing that is not mentioned is that if you have anything security related in your mailbox that it gets compromised. I had a World of Warcraft account information email saved in my gmail account and now today I was able to confirm that it was also hacked outside of my gmail account. A little history for those that don’t know this.
World of Warcraft online game has the players consistently collecting resources and gear to improve the players characters. The collecting of resources and gear is made intentionally tough.
Chinese Farmers ala’ online presence of World of Warcraft characters go around and thats all they do in 8 hour shifts in sweat shops in China. Once they have accumulated enough gold they will sell this for real money on various sites.
Needless to say my character was spotted today running around in patterns reminiscent of a robot collecting resources and not interacting until several friends consistently killed the character at which point the HACKER who was Chinese tried to complain.
Back to the real world….
Due to my gmail being compromised it in turn allowed more Chinese pirates to rape my other account through another service. Gmail users beware and change passwords frequently if you can. I was too late and now I have lost my gmail account and I am currently back tracking all other monetary links to make sure they do not include gmail. By the way Blizzard Entertainment is excellent at catching these people and returning accounts, unfortunately there aren’t any International Internet Police to pick up the offenders.
@Michael Jones,
My account got hacked the same way in the 16th of jan because a friend accessed iexplorer and i wasn’t aware. In less than half a day when i tried to log my WoW account it was blocked by Blizz. All i can say is that i love Blizzard for being so good and fast on catching these guys, they did not get a chance to steal anything. As for Microsoft i would like to thank them for the crappy browser that for years has these problems, it starts to become pathetic…