John Markoff reports in the New York Times that a computer security researcher found a link to China in the Trojan software used to attack Google.

Joe Stewart, a malware specialist with the SecureWorks, a computer security company based in Atlanta, said he determined the main program used in the attack contained a module based on an unusual algorithm from a Chinese-authored technical paper that has been published exclusively on Chinese-language Web sites.

This seems flimsy evidence for Chinese hackers. Clearly, Mr Stewart was aware of the algorithm even though it appeared only on Chinese-language web sites. Non-Chinese hackers could have done the same.

Google might reveal its Chinese hacker evidence on Thursday afternoon when it presents its Q4 2009 financial results and takes questions from Wall Street analysts.