Google hackers were amateurs, finds new report

The hack on Google's systems apparently went unnoticed for months

The Chinese hackers who launched attacks on Google and over 30 other organisations last year were amateurs, according to botnet detection firm Damballa.

In a report entitled The Command Structure of the Aurora Botnet (PDF), the firm claims to have pieced together an "extensive timeline of the attack".

Damballa said that the attacks launched against Google and other firms can be traced back to July 2009, and that the compromised host computers were most prevalent in the US, China, Germany, Taiwan and the UK.

"There is evidence of multiple criminal operators involved, and that the botnet operators were of an amateur level," the report said.

"The botnet has a simple command topology and makes extensive use of Dynamic DNS CnC techniques. The construction of the botnet would be classed as 'old school', and is rarely used by professional botnet criminal operators today."

However, Damballa was quick to point out that, despite being amateurs, the attackers were still able to cause a worrying amount of damage.

"The results proved just as damaging as a sophisticated botnet, since the threat was not quickly identified and neutralised," the report said.