Bloomberg: Yahoo was also target of Chinese cyber attack

Bloomberg, citing an unnamed source., is reporting that Yahoo was the target of cyber attacks that originated in China, similar to those disclosed by Google earlier this week. The company did not confirm such attacks to Bloomberg but said it "stands aligned" with Google in condemning them. (Techmeme) Yahoo, which has had its share of headaches in the past over policies in China, no longer operates Yahoo China. In a 2005 deal, Yahoo gave control of Yahoo China to Alibaba and paid $1 billion for a 39 percent stake in it. When Google announced earlier this week that it had been the target of an a cyber attack that originated in China and threatened to shutter its China web site, it also said that at least 20 other large companies in the Internet, finance, technology, media and chemical sectors were similarly targeted. Shortly after, Adobe confirmed that it was the victim of a "sophisticated" and "coordinated" attack on its corporate network systems, though it was unclear if that attack originated in China. Adobe became aware of the attack on Jan. 2, 2010. Yesterday, a Los Angeles law firm joined the list of those reportedly targeted in an attack that originated in China. That attack was discovered early this week, days after the firm filed a $2.2 billion suit against the People's Republic of China on behalf of a California software company that says the government, as well as Chinese software developers and PC manufacturers, illegally used 3,000 lines of its code in a filtering program that was to be installed on every PC sold in that country. The law firm said it began receiving trojan e-mails, designed to infiltrate its network, on Monday night. It was unclear if any of the attempts to get into the system were successful. It also said that the software company it represents was the target of a similar attack last summer, shortly after news about it software piracy went public. The Chinese government, in response to Google's intention to uncensor its Chinese site, said that foreign Internet companies are welcome in China but that they must obey the laws, according to a New York Times report. Google has said that it is willing to shut down its site and close its offices there.