China’s Politburo directed the intrusion into Google’s computer systems in that country, a Chinese contact told the American Embassy in Beijing in January, one cable reported. The Google hacking was part of a coordinated campaign of computer sabotage carried out by government operatives, private security experts and Internet outlaws recruited by the Chinese government. They have broken into American government computers and those of Western allies, the Dalai Lama and American businesses since 2002, cables said.
However, there is nothing in this reporting that justifies how TechCrunch headlined its coverage:
WikiLeaked Diplomatic Cables Confirm China’s Politburo Was Behind Google Hacking Incident
No, guys, it does not confirm it. Re-read that paragraph. It says one source told another that it was the government. That does not qualify as a “confirmation” in any journalistic sense.
I searched for the original cable, but it has not been released yet. All we have is the summary above.