Google Inc. is investigating whether any of its employees in China played a role in facilitating a major cyber attack that prompted a decision to stop censoring its search results in the country, according to people familiar with the matter.
One of these people said consideration of employee involvement was part of the normal course of investigating the attack, which Google has traced to China and which resulted in some loss of the company's software code.
While the company is still investigating, another person familiar with the matter said Google believes the attacks would have been successful whether or not the company had a presence in China.
Whether the company has found any evidence to implicate employees remains unclear. It is also unclear whether the Google investigation is focusing on the possibility of employee involvement in the main attack against its systems or separate attempts to breach the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists, or both.
Some of Google's roughly 700 employees in China have had their network access cut off during the investigation, according to a person briefed on the matter, and whether it has been restored remains unclear. Google spokespeople in the U.S. and China say the company's Chinese businesses continue to function. Google has employees in Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong who work of a range of products, including those related to non-Chinese markets.