So now, when someone searches for flights on Google, on the left there appears a link for “Flights” in the panel on the left, and voila! You have search results which show you the time and cost pf all available flights, and with a little help from Google, the flight user is then sent to the pertinent website of the airline selling that particular ticket. A slight hiccup may be that you may have to re-pick the same flight once yo hit that airline’s booking page. Google flights also operates at a much faster speed, by those who take their internet speed seriously. And there is a thoughtful and convenient search option, along with a map, to make it even more convenient for potential travelers searching for a flight. The service may be similar to that offered by sites such as Priceline, Expedia, etc, (who, by the way threw a bit of a tantrum citing unfair competition in the game once Google flights was announced) , but Google flights differs from them on the grounds of not working on commissions from travel sites.

Recently, a zero-day vulnerability was detected in Adobe (PDF file attachments). It is suspected to have been executed by the Chinese intelligence. Though these are yet to be proven, evidence suggests that Google and other companies like Adobe were on the list of the targeted. There have been many companies affected by these hacks. These activities are known to have been conducted by China- there is a history of hacks conducted by China. Activities of such magnitude lead to the withdrawal of companies such as Google from China. They have been dropping hints of the fore said. Suspicion of highly selective targeting on corporate infrastructure is one of many considered.

China’s rising economy does provide an incentive to be in the market but if business is hard hit, it results in long term losses. It is like a cyber-war which is being conducted between countries. This kind of new warfare is very tricky for major contractors of defense and finances. A cyber-war might just erupt. If such an occurrence does take place, then all those stuck in the middle, especially the private sector would be in huge losses. This calls for companies to strengthen their security lest they become easy targets.

Earlier victims like Dow Chemicals and Northrop Grumman are amongst those who have already suffered losses. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer was the instrument used to hack into the system. The vulnerability of the web browser was unknown. These browsers took control over the company data and accessed individual computers, gaining inside information and intellectual property data. The level of sophistication was that demonstrated by those at a national high level.

Google has revealed that intellectual data was stolen from Chinese accounts. In order to deceive investigators, hacks sent extracted information to different servers in Taiwan and Illinois. Investigation also revealed that servers maintained by a San Antonio web-hosting company were used to transmit stolen data. China denied all claims amidst the accusations.