Last month, when Google engineers at their sprawling campus in Silicon Valley began to suspect that Chinese intruders were breaking into private Gmail accounts, the company began a secret counteroffensive.
It managed to gain access to a computer in Taiwan that it suspected of being the source of the attacks. Peering inside that machine, company engineers actually saw evidence of the aftermath of the attacks, not only at Google, but also at at least 33 other companies, including Adobe Systems, Northrop Grumman and Juniper Networks, according to a government consultant who has spoken with the investigators.
Source: NY Times
Talk about sophistication. Google was able to “counterhack” the Chinese hacker’s operations. What kind of offensive is that if Google, a civilian institution, was capable of apparently hacking and collecting data of a supposedly well connected, pseudo government entity?