by wildcherry on Wednesday, January 13th, 2010 | News, Tech/Gadget

Google is tightening the security of its free e-mail service to combat computer hackers like the ones that recently targeted it in China. With the shift, Gmail accounts will automatically be set in an “https” mode, meaning contents of e-mail will be scrambled so they’re less likely to leak out to unauthorized users. Before, only the log-in data was encrypted.

Google hadn’t been using this more secure format as Gmail’s default setting because it can be slower than the unprotected mode.

6:00 PM ET: A timeline of Google’s biggest China controversies has been posted.

Selected posts on Twitter have been translated from Chinese to English.

Twitter user Wangle translated the following Tweet, which he says has been re-Tweeted by Chinese users:
#GoogleCN employees already forbidden access to code. Interns went home. All full-time staff discuss severence. #GoogleCN ending for sure.

Tags: google, Google China, google china censorship, Google China Hackers, Google China Liveblog, Google China Liveblogging, Google China Updates, Google In China, Google Leave China, Google Leaving China