Google Says It Found Attempt to Steal Users’ Gmail Passwords

Google Inc., owner of the world’s most popular search engine, said hackers tried to steal passwords from hundreds of Gmail users, targeting the accounts of government officials in the U.S. and Asia.

The campaign, which appears to have originated in Jinan, China, probably used a so-called phishing scam to collect passwords with the goal of monitoring e-mail content, Eric Grosse, engineering director on the Google Security Team, said in a blog post. The company said it detected and disrupted the campaign, secured users’ accounts and notified authorities.