.png)
Hacking allegation: The Google logo is displayed at the Google headquarters in Mountain View, California on April 7, 2011. (Kimihiro Hoshino/AFP/Getty Images)
The FBI is going to investigate Google’s claims that China-based hackers breached Gmail accounts belonging to U.S. officials.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Thursday that there will be an “ongoing investigation” into the security breach, which affected officials who worked at the State Department. She added that the “FBI … will be conducting the investigation.”
“We are obviously very concerned about Google’s announcement regarding a campaign that the company believes originated in China to collect the passwords of Google email account holders,” she said.
Clinton said that the U.S. takes the allegations made by Google, which were published in its blog on Wednesday, “very serious.”
Referring to such attacks, Clinton said it is “one of the reasons why we’ve created the first-ever cyber security coordinator position in the State Department.”
“We know this is going to be a continuing problem. And therefore we want to be as prepared as possible to deal with these matters when they do come to our attention,” she noted.
Accounts belonging to U.S. government officials were not the only ones affected, said Google. Human rights activists, South Korean officials, and others were also targeted.
The origins of the attacks were from Jinan Province in China, the Internet giant said.