John Markoff, New York Times
Ever since Google disclosed in January that Internet intruders had stolen information from its computers, the exact nature and extent of the theft has been a closely guarded company secret.
But a source with direct knowledge of the investigation now says that the losses included one of Google’s crown jewels, a password system that controls access by millions of users worldwide to almost all of the company’s services, including e-mail.
The program, code-named Gaia for the Greek goddess of the earth, was attacked in a lightning raid taking less than two days in December, the source said. The software is intended to enable users to sign in with their password just once to operate a range of services.
The intruders do not appear to have stolen passwords of Gmail users, and the company quickly started making changes to the security of its networks after the intrusions. But the theft leaves open the possibility that the intruders may find weaknesses that Google might not even be aware of, independent computer experts said.
The new details seem likely to increase the debate about the security and privacy of systems that now centralize the personal information of millions of individuals and businesses.
Link to ‘poisoned’ site
The theft began with a single instant message sent to a Google employee in China, according to the person with knowledge of the inquiry, who spoke on the condition he not be identified. By clicking on a link and connecting to a “poisoned” Web site, the employee inadvertently permitted the intruders to gain access to his (or her) personal computer and then to the computers of a critical group of software developers at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View.
Ultimately, the intruders were able to gain control of a software repository used by that team.
Tightening security
The details surrounding the theft of the software have been a closely guarded secret by the company. Google first publicly disclosed the theft in a Jan. 12 posting, which stated that the company was changing its policy toward China in the wake of the theft of unidentified “intellectual property” and the apparent compromise of the e-mail accounts of two human rights activists.
Company executives declined to comment Monday about the new details of the case.
Google continues to use the Gaia password system, now known as Single Sign-On, but has tightened the security of its data centers.
Several technical experts said that because Google had quickly learned of the theft of the software, it is unclear what the consequences of the theft have been. One of the most alarming possibilities is that the attackers might have intended to insert a Trojan Horse – a secret backdoor – into Gaia and install it in dozens of Google’s global data centers to establish clandestine entry points.
This article appeared on page D — 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle on Apr 20, 2010
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