**The US is calling for tough action against people and states that carry out cyber attacks, following an alleged attack on search giant Google in China.**Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will say in a speech an attack on a nation’s networks is “an attack on all”.
Google has threatened to quit China, saying hackers tried to infiltrate its software coding and e-mail accounts of Chinese human rights activists.
China says the row with Google should not be linked to ties with the US.
Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister He Yafei said the rift with the web company should not be “over-interpreted”, according to state news agency Xinhua.
In remarks released to journalists ahead of a speech in Washington, Mrs Clinton said global “norms of behaviour” should be put in place.
“Countries or individuals that engage in cyber attacks should face consequences and international condemnation,” she said.
‘Highly sophisticated’
“In an interconnected world, an attack on one nation’s networks can be an attack on all.”
Mrs Clinton is also expected to address Google’s concerns directly.
Google said on 12 January hackers had tried to infiltrate its software coding and the e-mail accounts of Chinese human rights activists, in a “highly sophisticated” attack.
The California-based company, which launched in China in 2006, said it would quit the country unless the government relaxed censorship.
**Lucrative market **
On Tuesday, the Chinese government said Google and other foreign companies had to obey the country’s laws and traditions.
The same day, Google said it was postponing the launch of two mobile phones in China.
When Google launched google.cn four years ago, it was criticised for agreeing to Beijing’s demands to make certain search results off-limits - including those relating to the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, Tibetan independence or Falun Gong.
China has more internet users, about 350 million, than any other country and provides a lucrative search-engine market worth an estimated $1bn (£618m) last year.
Google holds about a third of the country’s search market, Chinese rival Baidu has more than 60%.