Web attacks on China rising

The number of computers in China which were infected and controlled by overseas IP addresses is on the rise with Japan and the U.S. ranked as top source of attacks, says the national Chinese computer defense team.

In a report Monday, China's National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team (CNCERT/CC) said it has found 47,000 foreign IP address involved in remotely accessing and controlling computers in China during a random sample investigation in 2011.

While this was a drop from the 22,100 overseas IP address found in 2010, the number of infected computers has increased, it noted. In 2010, the number of infected computers in China were at 5 million and this increased to 8.9 million last year, said the report.

Japan was ranked as the top source of cyberattack as 22.8 percent of intrusions originated from the country. This is followed by the U.S. at 20.4 percent and Korea at 7.1 percent, said the report.

In 2009 and 2010, the U.S. was the top source of cyberattacks but the country dropped to second place last year. However, with 9,528 U.S.-based IP addresses controlling 8.85 million computers in China, the U.S. still the controls the most number of computers, said the report.

Overseas hackers were also responsible for vandalizing 1,116 Web sites in mainland China, said CNCERT/CC. A total of 11,851 foreign IP addresses were involved in remotely controlling 10,593 domestic Web sites, it added.

At 95.8 percent, a large majority of the fake Web sites posing as official ones for Chinese banks had foreign IP addresses. U.S.-based IP addresses comprised of 72.1 percent of the fake Web sites, making the country the main perpetrator again, said the report. CNCERT found that 481 U.S.-based IP addresses posed as 2,943 domestic bank Web sites, it noted.