Chinese state media hit out at Google Monday, warning it against becoming a political tool after the Internet giant said it had been hit by a cyberspying campaign that originated in China.

"Google should not become too involved in an international political struggle nor act as a tool in a political game," the People's Daily, the Communist Party mouthpiece, said in an editorial in its overseas version.

"Once the international wind changes direction, it may sacrificed for politics, and could be abandoned by the market," it said, without elaborating.

Google said last week it had been hit by a cyberspying campaign targeting Gmail accounts of senior US officials, journalists and activists, which appeared to have come from Jinan, capital of the eastern province of Shandong.

The company did not specifically point the finger at Chinese authorities, but China's foreign ministry said Thursday it was "unacceptable" to blame Beijing, raising the prospect of fresh tensions with the United States.

Google security team engineering director Eric Grosse said in a blog post that the US-based Internet giant had "uncovered a campaign to collect user passwords, likely through phishing."

Those affected included senior US government officials, Chinese political activists, military personnel, journalists and officials in several Asian countries, mainly South Korea, he said.

The "phishing" ruse used to trick Gmail users into revealing account names and passwords reportedly involved sending booby-trapped messages that appeared to come from legitimate associates, friends or organisations.

This is the second time that Google has reported a China-based cyberattack. Early last year, a similar incident prompted the company to stop bowing to online censors and reduce its presence in China.

At that time, Beijing virulently denied any state involvement in the cyberattacks that Google said targeted email accounts of Chinese human rights activists, saying such claims were "groundless".

Since then, Google has seen its share of the lucrative Chinese search market slide to the profit of local rival Baidu.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday said Google's latest allegations were "very serious." But the White House said it was not aware that any official email accounts had been compromised.

The People's Daily accused Google of having "strongly hinted the cyberattack was the work of the Chinese government," adding the firm had still not provided any evidence.

"Google's accusations are made up, have ulterior motives and vicious intentions."

earlier related report
China denies hacking charges, backs cyber talks
Singapore (AFP) June 5, 2011 - China's defence minister on Sunday denied that Beijing was behind Internet attacks on foreign targets and echoed US-British calls for international talks to toughen up cyber-security.

"It is hard to attribute the real source of attacks and we need to work together to make sure that this security problem won't be a problem," Defence Minister Liang Guanglie told a security forum in Singapore.

"Actually in China we have also suffered quite a wide range and frequency of cyber-attacks," he said.

"The Chinese government attaches importance also to cyber-security and stands firmly against all kinds of cyber-crimes," he said.

China has been accused by the United States, Canada and other nations of spearheading online attacks on government agencies as well as companies, although the Beijing government has always denied this.

Last week, Internet giant Google said a cyber-spying campaign originating in China had targeted Gmail accounts of senior US officials, military personnel, journalists and Chinese political activists.

The United States said Friday it had highlighted Google's concerns with Beijing, but the Chinese government has described any suggestion that it was behind the attack as "unacceptable".

Chinese hackers have also been accused of attacking sites critical of Beijing, with a US lawmaker in April urging Washington to protect a popular activist site after it was hit by hackers apparently upset at a petition to free detained artist Ai Weiwei.

"It is important for everyone to obey or follow laws and regulations in terms of cyber-security," said Liang, who joined calls for global coordination to deal with the issue.

Addressing the same forum in Singapore, the United States and Britain appealed Saturday for international cooperation against online threats following a fresh spate of attacks on government and corporate targets.

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates and British Defence Secretary Liam Fox underscored the urgency of the problem but avoided singling out Beijing as being the source of cyber-attacks.

"I think that one of the things that would be beneficial would be for there to be a more open dialogue among countries about cyber (threats) and establishing some rules of the road," Gates said.

Fox said Britain would host an international conference on what he called the "war of the invisible enemy" later this year.

The talks in London will include discussions on a potential legal framework, he said.

Earlier Sunday, Japanese videogame maker Nintendo reported that a website operated by its US subsidiary was hacked several weeks ago, with no personal information stolen.

Besieged games rival Sony is already grappling to contain the fallout from a series of cyber-attacks that have compromised the personal details of millions of online users in one of the biggest data breaches ever.

US aerospace giant Boeing said Friday on the sidelines of the Singapore conference that it was under "continuous" cyber-attack but that there had been no breach of its databases.

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