THE SUSPICION: Experts say the Iranian government may have been behind a hacking attack, allowing it to read Google email from dissidents who thought they were using secure connections.
DETAILS: Chicago-based Internet security firm Vasco says its Dutch subsidiary, DigiNotar, detected the hack on July 19. The hack compromised security certificates that are supposed to guarantee the privacy of communications between a user’s browser and a website. The company quietly tried to fix the damage, but was alerted by the Dutch government that it had missed Google, and perhaps others.
GOOGLE RESPONSE: The company says people affected were primarily located in Iran.
