Google Seeks Alliance With America's 'Secret Sentry'
-
(Feb. 4) – The China-based cyberattack against Google has apparently prompted the powerful search engine company to reach out to the National Security Agency for help, The Washington Post reports today.
"Sources with knowledge of the arrangement, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the alliance is being designed to allow the two organizations to share critical information without violating Google's policies or laws that protect the privacy of Americans' online communications," The Washington Post says.
The public-private alliance is the latest in a series of revelations that highlights the evolution of cyberwarfare.
Last month, Google announced it would no long censor its Chinese search engine, accusing China of orchestrating a broad computer attack on its company. Earlier this week, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair called that event a "wake-up call" and warned that future attacks, by terrorists or foreign governments, could "wreak havoc" on the United States.
But the marriage of data-rich Google with the eavesdropping NSA, known as America's "secret sentry," could be privacy advocates' worst nightmare. Google is notoriously reticent to speak about its discussions with government authorities, both in the United States and abroad. The Internet search company originally drew sharp criticism for its decision to cede to China's requests that it censor Web sites.
Even in the United States, Google has agreed to at least one government request. In 2008, the company, at the Pentagon's urging, removed images collected of any Army base in Texas from Google Street View after the military expressed concerns that the panoramic pictures posed a security threat.
The removal sparked questions about other cases when Google might have censored images at the request of the U.S. or foreign governments. At the time, Google confirmed that it had removed the images of the Army base, but declined to say whether there were other instances.
That has led to speculation – though no confirmation – that other cases exist.
Most famously, pictures of the vice presidential residence, rumored to be the site of a secret bunker, were blurred on Google Maps until last year. Google maintains that the imagery, which is supplied by the U.S. Geological Survey, was not blurred by the company.
As for Google's new relationship with the NSA, it's unclear exactly what it will cover. Neither Google nor the NSA responded immediately to requests for comment.
One industry official involved in cybersecurity and familiar with how the NSA works says that a relationship with Google could help the NSA learn how Google spotted the attack and tracked it back to the Chinese government. But the NSA may not necessarily be interested in fixing computer security holes that the agency could exploit to its own advantage against other countries.
"The question is: What's NSA going to do" with information on the Google attack? the source said. "Help them defend against it? I would doubt it."
