James Delahunty
23 Feb 2010 14:34
Google Inc. has reportedly resumed talks with Chinese officials on the issue of Internet censorship in the country. Google threatened last month to exit the country rather than bow to government censorship policies that force it to filter search results. The company's change of heart came after a cyberattack, sourced in China, and aimed at the company's valuable source code as well as the e-mail accounts of Chinese human rights activists.
The U.S. Government got itself involved in the situation in the following weeks, with President Barack Obama saying he was troubled by the attacks and was seeking answers from the Chinese government. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also covered the topic in a general speech about the affect Internet censorship can have on states.
Researchers now believe a Chinese freelance security consultant with ties to the Chinese government was the author of the code used in attacks against Google and 30 other companies. The trail apparently leads back to computers at two schools in the country. Both the schools and the Chinese government deny the claims.
Since Google's ultimatum, the search giant has continued serving filtered results to Internet users in the country and has not commented on discussions with officials.