Could IT governance have prevented Google’s Issues with China?

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By now, I assume that everybody in the industry is aware of Google potentially ceasing operations in China.  Given the cyber attacks on gmail accounts that were supposedly initiated by the Chinese government, it's clear that this story will continue to play out over the next several months. We've already heard from Secretary of State Hilary Clinton stating that the issue has "raised very serious concerns"  along with other daily reports on the topic.

While there are many different ways to view this evolving story, the piece that I find most troubling is today's news that indicates that Google insiders may have aided the Chinese government in hacking the gmail accounts of human rights activists.

The tech crowd is pointing to vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer and there is a solid argument about the ability to use IE to hack into the gmail accounts.  However, blaming Microsoft technology for the security compromises is about as productive as blaming the gasoline after the arsonist has set the fire.The issue that this whole Google China incident raises in my mind is the role of the government in the Internet and where IT governance intersects the two.

Now I don't expect nor do I want any government to step in and start overseeing the usage of the Internet and search engine results.  Yet with the latest news that the cyber attacks are being traced back to insiders, it calls into question the amount of IT governance that was in place. 

Could governance have prevented the attacks?  No, as that's a far-fetched and unrealistic claim.  However, with the right amount of governance in place, rogue applications and activities may not have been allowed to infiltrate the infrastructure.  In this instance, it may have been able to alert Google China's managers to potentially compromising behavior before it put the entire operation at risk including the 700 employees in the country. 

If Google does cease operations in China, the implications will be pretty far reaching given the search engine giant's presence in the country and its recent expansion into music and the mobile device market.  It would be a shame for the company to lose the momentum it's been building in China over since 2005 yet it would be an even bigger shame if it was forced to compromise it's "Do No Evil" mission statement.

I'm going to keep watching this story, as there's likely to be more that unfolds.  Meanwhile, I can't help but wonder how much of a difference governance would have been able to make in minimizing the impact of the situation.