Hacking Inquiry Puts China’s Elite in New Light

SHANGHAI — With its authentic reputation and its scientific bent, Shanghai Jiaotong University has the feel of an Ivy League institution.

The university has alliances with elite American ones like Duke and the University of Michigan. And it is so rich in science and engineering talent that Microsoft and Intel have moved into a research park directly nearby to the school.
But Jiaotong, whose sprawling campus here has more than 33,000 students, is facing an unlikable question  is it a base for sophisticated computer hackers?
Investigators looking into Web attacks on Google and dozens of other American companies last year have traced the intrusions to computers at Jiaotong as well as an unclear vocational school in eastern China, according to people briefed on the case.
Security experts concern that it is hard to trace online attacks and that the digital footprints may be a “false flag,” a kind of distraction intended to throw investigators off track.
But those with knowledge of the examination say there are consistent clues that suggest the highly complicated attacks may have originated at Jiaotong and the more obscure campus, Lanxiang Vocational School in Shandong Province, an institution with ties to the Chinese military.