Google and Government Partner to fight cyberattacks

Google is finalizing a deal that will allow the National Security Agency United States to help investigate the attack of corporate espionage that could have come from China, said Thursday the Washington Post.

The aim of the research is to better respond to Google, the largest Internet search firm in the world, and its users from future attacks, the Post said, citing unnamed sources with knowledge of the agreement.
The sources said that Google's alliance with the NSA electronic surveillance organization more powerful in the world, would aim to allow both parties to share key information without violating Google's policies or laws that protect the privacy of internet communications .

Under the agreement, the NSA will not see the user searches or e-mail accounts, sources said. Google does not share ownership data with the NSA, said.

Google took on January 12 the unusual step of announcing that he was the victim of sophisticated cyber attacks in mid-December and is reviewing its business operation in China.

The company based in Silicon Valley said the cyberattacks directed against activists Gmail accounts of human rights defenders Chinese and a research fund of at least 20 other large companies had been targeted.China responded several days later with a defense of state control over the Internet. A senior official said internet pornography, fraud, and rumors were a threat and the means of the internet should help "guide public opinion" in China.

The U.S. director of national intelligence, Dennis Blair said Tuesday that the cyberattacks against Google were a warning.The partnership between the giant Internet search and the NSA touches sensitive issues about how to balance individual privacy and national security online.

Google went to the NSA as a result of the attacks, but achieving agreement took weeks because of the sensitive nature of the exchange of information between both parties.
The focus of the cooperative society will not be in determining who was behind the attacks, the Post said citing sources. That would be almost impossible.

Instead, the goal is to build a better defense of the networks of Google, or what experts call "information security", according to the Post quoted its sources.