Reuters reports that a recent attack that originated in China was carried out against Google and 20 other companies and was apparently an attempt by the hackers to steal valuable intellectual properties and source code from the sites. Google has said that the attack against it resulted in the loss of IP and code and that it was currently evaluating the viability of its operations in China after being hit with hacking attempts and IP theft. Google is currently the leading U.S. search firm in China.

Reuters reports that the attackers also targeted Adobe Systems, but Adobe claims that while its network was attacked, it had no stolen IP. The hackers apparently tried to take advantage of vulnerabilities in Adobe's Acrobat and Reader software that is widely used. Interestingly, McAfee predicted that exploits against Adobe software would outnumber the exploits targeted at Microsoft software in 2010.

The flaws in the Adobe software were addressed in a critical patch released by Adobe yesterday reports Reuters. The vulnerabilities allow an attacker to inject code into a computer once a PDF file was opened. Google has stated that in a similar attack in September 1 of the goals of the attack was in part to compromise Gmail accounts.

Microsoft has stated that its email service was not hacked. A Microsoft spokesman told Reuters that, "We have no indication that any of our mail properties have been compromised."