Chinese experts: Gmail hacking accusation likely ill-intentioned

BEIJING - Google lacks evidence to support its accusations that Chinese hackers are behind alleged cyber attacks on hundreds of its e-mail accounts, and the timing of such accusations is ill-intentioned, Chinese experts said over the weekend.

"Google's accusation is neither serious nor credible as it has not published any evidence that shows the hackers are from China," said Dai Yiqi, a cyber security expert with Tsinghua University.

Eric Grosse, engineering director of Google's security team, wrote on the company blog Wednesday that unidentified hacker attacks, likely originating from the eastern Chinese city of Jinan, tried to collect user passwords of the Gmail accounts of hundreds of users, including senior US government officials, Chinese "human rights activists" and journalists.