The Chinese Government often employs the help of volunteers to carry out cyber attacks. These volunteers have been dubbed “patriotic hackers” and often have indirect ties to the government. In the case of the recent attacks against Google and numerous American businesses, two Chinese schools, elite Chinese university and a vocational school, may have been involved in the attacks stated investigators from Google and the National Security Agency. Prior to this discovery, the investigations have ended in a trace to servers in Taiwan.  The Lanxiang Vocational School was established with military help train computer scientists for military work. Some critics has asserted that the school is a front for government operations and possibly non-traditional cyber warfare. Meanwhile, Chinese news source, Xinhuanet contends that the NYT report was untrue and unfounded–stating that such claims are more akin to “ science fiction” than actuality.

Resources:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/19/AR2010021902643.html?hpid=moreheadlines

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/19/technology/19china.html

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2010-02/21/c_13182350.htm