Editing Industrial espionage (section)

===Google and Operation Aurora===
On 13 January 2010, [[Google]] announced that operators, from within China, had hacked into their Google China operation, stealing intellectual property and, in particular, accessing the email accounts of human rights activists.{{sfn|Harvey|2010}}{{sfn|Branigan|2010}} The attack was thought to have been part of a more widespread cyber attack on companies within China which has become known as [[Operation Aurora]].{{sfn|Branigan|2010}} Intruders were thought to have launched a [[zero-day attack]], exploiting a weakness in the [[Microsoft]] [[Internet Explorer]] browser, the malware used being a modification of the [[trojan horse (computing)|trojan]] "[[Hydraq]]".{{sfn|Lohr|2010}} Concerned about the possibility of hackers taking advantage of this previously unknown [[Vulnerability (computer security)|weakness]] in Internet Explorer, the governments of Germany and, subsequently France, issued warnings not to use the [[Web browser|browser]].{{sfn|Ahmed|2010}}

There was speculation that "insiders" had been involved in the attack, with some [[Google China]] employees being denied access to the company's internal networks after the company's announcement.{{sfn|Beaumont|2010}}{{sfn|Reuters|2010}} In February 2010, computer experts from the U.S. [[National Security Agency]] claimed that the attacks on Google probably originated from two Chinese universities associated with expertise in [[computer science]], [[Shanghai Jiao Tong University]] and the [[Shandong Lanxiang Vocational School]], the latter having close links to the [[People's Liberation Army|Chinese military]].{{sfn|Markoff|Barboza|2010}}

Google claimed at least 20 other companies had also been targeted in the cyber attack, said by the ''London [[The Times|Times]]'', to have been part of an "ambitious and sophisticated attempt to steal secrets from unwitting corporate victims" including "defence contractors, finance and technology companies".{{sfn|Branigan|2010}}{{sfn|Harvey|2010}}{{sfn|Ahmed|2010}} Rather than being the work of individuals or organised criminals, the level of sophistication of the attack was thought to have been "more typical of a [[nation state]]".{{sfn|Harvey|2010}} Some commentators speculated as to whether the attack was part of what is thought to be a concerted Chinese industrial espionage operation aimed at getting "high-tech information to jump-start [[Economy of China|China's economy]]".{{sfn|Lawson|2010}} Critics pointed to what was alleged to be a lax attitude to the intellectual property of foreign businesses in China, letting them operate but then seeking to copy or [[Reverse engineering|reverse engineer]] their technology for the benefit of Chinese "national champions".{{sfn|Rogin|2010}} In Google's case, they may have (also) been concerned about the possible misappropriation of source code or other technology for the benefit of Chinese rival [[Baidu]]. In March 2010 Google subsequently decided to cease offering [[Censorship in China|censored results in China]], leading to the closing of its Chinese operation.