Google and NSA discussing defense partnership
Internet giant Google Inc and the National Security Agency are in discussions for a defense agreement to protect Google from cyberattacks, according to a report on the Washington Post.
The newspaper further said that the security organization will assess the attack on Google that it believed had originated in China and will protect it from future attacks. The agreement would see Google and NSA share information in way that does not violate Google privacy rules or laws relating to information sharing. However, both Google and NSA have not commented on the report.
Google announced on Jan. 12 that its systems had been hacked in a series of intrusions beginning in December. The company then said that it would withdraw from China after detecting that the email accounts of some human rights activists in Europe, China and the United States were hacked in an attack which the company believes originated from China. Google however did not directly blame the Chinese government.
Experts say that the hackers targeted Google's source code which is the programming language underlying Google applications. The cyberattacks also targeted 30 other western companies.
The Chinese government in its response said the companies doing business in China must follow rules of the country. It also said that that state has nothing to do with the cyber attacks while it also defended internet censorship. The Chinese government also expressed its anger over a speech by U. S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in which she denounced Internet censorship.
Under the agreement NSA would evaluate vulnerabilities in hardware and software to access the security systems of Google and also to help Google to calibrate how sophisticated the adversary is.
Experts believe that Google type attacks and those with even greater impact could threaten the United States. They say that various entities including other nations, terrorist networks, and organized crime groups could cause damage to the U. S. networks to disrupt operations and steal sensitive information.
A report by McAfee also outlined the dangers of prospective cyber attacks by foreign governments and other groups and said that these cyber attacks could lead to down time costs of more than $6 million per day.
