Attempted Cyberattack on Law Firm that Sued China

The U.S. law firm Gipson Hoffman & Pancione has received email with malicious code they belive originated from China. Gipson Hoffman & Pancione is the firm representing Solid Oak Software Inc., a maker of Internet filtering software that they alleged was stolen and used by Chinese companies to create the "Green Dam Youth Escort" filtering software required by the Chinese government. The lawsuit named various Chinese companies and the Chinese government.

After analyzing the malicious code, a company spokesperson said:

"We have every reason to believe they're coming out of China... We have solid indications. We can say the payloads of these Trojan e-mails were located within China and the ISP routing bears out the connections with China. But what we don't know is specifically who they were sent by, where they were sent from, and why they were sent."

The spokesperson also noted the timing of the attack in relation to Google's announcement to stop censoring Internet searches in China:

"It is difficult to believe that the timing is merely coincidental."

U.S. Law Firm That Sued China Reports Cyberattack