Google - China attack episode: Is Microsoft to blame?

A complex attack on the Google Gmail accounts of human rights activitists – apparently from hackers based in China – has now been indirectly blamed on Microsoft, after McAfee Labs announced last night that the attacks appear to exploit a little-known vulnerability in Microsoft Internet Explorer.

The Google Gmail attacks – which were paralleled by similar attacks on Adobe and a number of other IT companies – are the result of a complex targeted attack by hackers in China that stem from a new and little-known vulnerabiity in the Microsoft web browser.

In his analysis of the saga, George Kurtz, McAfee's chief technology officer, said that, in the company's investigation it discovered that one of the malware samples involved in this broad attack exploits a new, not publicly known vulnerability in Microsoft Internet Explorer.

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