Google Inc. said Chinese hackers targeted the email accounts of senior U.S. officials and hundreds of other prominent people in a fresh computer attack certain to intensify growing concern about the security of the Internet.

The victims, including government and military personnel, Asian officials, Chinese activists and journalists, were tricked into sharing their Gmail passwords with “bad actors” based in China, Google said in an unusual blog post. The attack’s goal was to read and forward the victims’ email. The company, which in 2010 blamed China for an attack on its computer networks, said it recently discovered the Gmail campaign, which “appears to originate from Jinan, China,” and targeted specific individuals.

In Washington, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Homeland Security said they were working with Google to investigate the attacks. “We have no reason to believe that any official U.S. government email accounts were accessed,” said Caitlin Hayden, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council.

Jinan, a large city about 250 miles south of Beijing, is home to one of the People’s Liberation Army’s technical reconnaissance bureaus, which serve as arms of China’s equivalent of the National Security Agency, according to a 2009 report from a committee created by Congress to study China. Google, which claims more than 200 million users for its free, Web-based Gmail email service, declined to comment on the identities of the affected individuals, how it traced the attacks to Jinan or who may be behind the incident.

The latest attack continues a troubling wave of incidents involving corporate and government computer networks, which have exposed private information of millions users and raised fears about the safety of government secrets. Last week, defense contractor Lockheed Martin Corp. said it had detected a significant attack against its computer networks.

Senior US Officials are using gmail…why am I not shocked? BTW Sony was hacked again today.