The FBI, U.S. federal police opened an investigation into the attack against Google's several e-mail accounts allegedly held by Chinese hackers, confirmed on Thursday (2) Jay Carney, a spokesman for the White House.
Carney denied that e-mail accounts of government officials from the United States have been hacked. "We have no reason to believe that e-mails from U.S. officials have been violated." Carney, however, avoided answering questions about China's involvement in the attack.
The spokesman also pointed out that the American president, Barack Obama, is "aware of the complaint from Google" and receiving "regular updates" on the issue. "Threats to information and communication infrastructures are a serious economic and security challenge for the U.S. and its allies. So the president has made security one of its key digital priorities," he added.
Accusations
Google is very serious "
Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State
U.S. officials said government officials were instructed not to use private accounts to discuss confidential matters. However, the U.S. government confirmed that private accounts will check if the authorities were hit.
The statements were released Carney shortly after Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, describing the accusations Google to China as very serious. "We hope the Chinese government give an explanation," Clinton said in a statement.
Google unveiled on Wednesday (1) that unknown hackers, apparently coming from central China, tried to break into the accounts of hundreds of users of its system of e-mails, including top officials of the U.S. government, and Chinese activists journalists.
In Beijing, Hong Lei, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, denied that, calling them unfounded and unacceptable. "The attacks are an international problem which China is also a victim. Accusations of alleged attacks are totally groundless and has ulterior motives," stated Hong.
