Computer hackers stole a program that controlled access to most of Google Inc.'s services when they attacked the Internet company late last year gained access to computer code for the software that authenticates users of Google's email, calendar and other online programs, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The code was contained in a repository that contained code for Google's online applications and was also breached, this person said.
The disclosure comes as much about the nature of the attacks and the perpetrators behind it remain unclear. Google, which disclosed the attacks in January, opted following the incident to shut down its censored search service in China.
The story in The New York Times provided more details about an intrusion that provoked a politically charged showdown between Google and China's government over Internet censorship and computer security.
The Times said it obtained the information from an unnamed person with direct knowledge of the investigation into the break-in that Google has traced to China.
Google declined to comment specifically on the Times' story. A spokeswoman reiterated Google's previous assertions that the attacks on the company didn't obtain any personal information from its users' e-mail accounts.
The person familiar with the matter said that the attackers gained access to Google's computer code by compromising a workstation used by a Google engineer.
Google's password-management system, known as Gaia, does not store passwords or user information; rather it is the instructions that allows Google to recognize when a Google users already logged into one service, like Gmail, tries to log into another. Gaining access to the system is the equivalent of learning how to operate a filing system, and not accessing the information contained inside, the person familiar with the matter said.
Without providing specifics, Google acknowledged some of its intellectual property had been stolen when it announced the hacking attacks in January. The heist prompted Google to tighten its computer security.
At least 20 other companies were targeted in similar attacks, according to Google.
The breach incensed Google so much that the company decided to protest the country's laws dictating the censorship of Internet search results deemed to be subversive or pornographic by the government. Google started censoring in China four years ago when it set up a search engine inside of the country to gain better access to the world's largest Web audience.
After unsuccessfully trying to negotiate a compromise with China's ruling party, Google last month began to shift search requests from mainland China to Hong Kong, where online censorship isn't required.
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