Could Google Cyber Attack Be An Insider Job?

The Wall Street Journal has reported that Google has initiated an internal investigation in order to determine whether some if its China staff were instrumental in the ‘highly sophisticated’ cyber attack that breached the search engine giant’s corporate infrastructure. 

Citing sources within the company, the newspaper also reported that some of the 700 employees working in Google China had been denied access to the company’s internal network during the course of the internal investigation. 

According to the WSJ report, unnamed sources within the company said that the ongoing investigation of the employees was part of the normal course of investigation into the cyber attack that was aimed at stealing intellectual property belonging to Google. 

The news of an ongoing investigation follows Google’s announcement that the company had recently come under fire from a cyber attack that had its origins in China. 

The search engine giant had also reported that the attack was aimed at the Gmail accounts of some Chinese human rights activists and that 20 other US based companies were the targets of the attack.  

This shocking revelation from Google was followed by the announcement that if the Chinese government failed to allow Google to operate sans censorship regulations, then the company will close down its China operations.