Officials at the National Security Agency have been working with Google Inc. to investigate the cyber attacks that Google announced publicly last month, according to people familiar with the investigation. The partnership began weeks ago, when the Internet company began sharing details about the attack with different government agencies, including its belief that the attack originated in China and affected more than 20 companies. Google said it would respond to the attack by ending its censorship of search results in China – a move it has yet to make amid continuing discussions with Chinese officials. Google's chief executive Eric Schmidt said recently that the Internet company doesn't want to back out of China but wants to be there on "different terms." A Google spokeswoman declined to comment beyond the company's earlier statement that it was "working with the relevant U.S. authorities." An NSA spokeswoman said in a statement that "NSA is not able to comment on specific relationships we may or may not have with U.[Read more...]