China — What has been described as a sophisticated act of malice, Internet users in China are facing a phishing attack — Google’s Gmail service in China has been hijacked by hackers, which is redirecting users of the service to a bogus phishing website to steal usernames and passwords, according to reports from various sources.
According to a report by tech site Fast Company, over the weekend, reports appearing from Chinese Internet users reveals that when they attempt to access their accounts from the Google Toolbar or visit “www.gmail.com” directly, they are re-directed to a replica site at a different address (http://124.117.227.201/web/gmail/) where they are asked to enter or re-enter their account information.
According to one report, Like all phishing attacks, the hackers are interested in accumulating Gmail user login information, as well as any other information they can sift out of email accounts.
In a statement, a Google spokesperson said: “As always, users should be careful about where they share their personal information, and should avoid clicking through warnings about suspicious sites. We encourage Gmail users to visit https://mail.google.com directly.”
While this ISP phishing may be a venture to develop a sense of insecurity around Gmail, intended to get Web users to stop trusting or using Google. So far however, it is still vague who orchestrated the attacks, other than that the server originated from Ürümqi in Northwest China.
In recent months, the Internet search engine giant’s relationship with China has been tense. After hackers breached Google headquarters in Beijing, the company announced it would no longer censor the country’s searches and began forwarding users to Google Hong Kong, which mainland China quickly blocked.
And just this morning, in yet another example of increased tensions, two state-run companies announced plans to launch a search business to rival Google, one that is focused on mobile searches.