By JOHN MARKOFF and DAVID BARBOZ

Published: February 19, 2010, New York Times

SAN FRANCISCO - A series of online attacks on Google and dozens of other American corporations have been traced to computers at two educational institutions in China, including one with close ties to the Chinese military, say people involved in the investigation.

They also said the attacks, aimed at stealing trade secrets and computer codes and capturing e-mail of Chinese human rights activists, may have begun as early as April, months earlier than previously believed. Google announced on Jan. 12 that it and other companies had been subjected to sophisticated attacks that probably came from China.

Computer security experts, including investigators from the National Security Agency, have been working since then to pinpoint the source of the attacks. Until recently, the trail had led only to servers in Taiwan.

If supported by further investigation, the findings raise as many questions as they answer, including the possibility that some of the attacks came from China but not necessarily from the Chinese government, or even from Chinese sources.

Tracing the attacks further back, to an elite Chinese university and a vocational school, is a breakthrough in a difficult task. Evidence acquired by a United States military contractor that faced the same attacks as Google has even led investigators to suspect a link to a specific computer science class, taught by a Ukrainian professor at the vocational school.

The revelations were shared by the contractor at a meeting of computer security specialists.

The Chinese schools involved are Shanghai Jiaotong University and the Lanxiang Vocational School, according to several people with knowledge of the investigation who asked for anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the inquiry.

The following, by Richard A. McCormack, is the first of two articles from the latest edition of Manufacturing & Technology News. It can be found in its entirety here.

The United States is not a desirable place to build a new semiconductor wafer fabrication (fab) plant. Such plants are massive, costing upwards of $8 billion and generating thousands of direct and indirect high-paying jobs, spinoff revenue for local communities and massive investments in research, equipment and materials. Semiconductors sit at the top of the electronics industry pyramid. The United States invented the technology, but it's become a small player as measured by global production.

In 2009, 16 fabs began construction throughout the world. One of them was in the United States, according to Daniel Tracy, senior director of industry research and statistics at Semiconductor Equipment Materials International. Seven of the fabs that began construction will produce light-emitting diodes, one of the most promising energy-saving technologies developed in 50 years. None of those fabs will be in the United States.

Last Friday the International Trade Commission rejected a request by 11 Chinese tubular producers to reopen the OCTG antidumping record to consider what the Chinese attorneys called “more current” information, which the Chinese claimed would negate the ITC’s finding that the OCTG imports posed a threat of injury to US mills. As a result of rejecting this request, the ITC's final decision in the antidumping case will be based on the same records compiled during the countervailing investigation, which contain information and data through September 2009. The ITC ruled in December to impose countervailing duties of 10%-16% and is expected to make a final decision in the antidumping case against Chinese OCTG imports in May.
 
We believe this was an attempt by the Chinese to help their case in the ongoing antidumping case where the stakes are a lot higher – the US Department of Commerce imposed preliminary antidumping duties of 36%-99% on Chinese OCTG last November.

China is building ports in India's backyard.  Worrying India.