Google Hack Tied to Chinese Schools

Two schools in China are reportedly being eyed as the potential source of the hack attacks that Google Inc. says targeted human rights activists' Gmail accounts.

Computer security experts traced the attacks to Shanghai Jiaotong University and Lanxiang Vocational School, the New York Times reports.

The attacks may have begun last April, much earlier than previously believed, the paper says.

The university has one one of China's top-ranked computer programs, and the vocational school was established with Chinese military backing and supplies computer scientists to the military.

It's not clear whether the attacks were done independently by students at the schools or for a third party such as the Chinese government or for a private company. It is also possible that it simply means computer Internet addresses at the schools were hijacked in the attacks.

Google's announcement last month that it and a number of other companies had been the victims of a massive online attack triggered an international debate over Internet censorship and espionage.

The search giant said it was no longer willing to abide by China's rules regarding the Internet, even if it means abandoning the country. Microsoft Corp. and some other U.S. companies have sought to distance themselves from that stand.