China: 250,000 cyber attacks came from overseas

by Steve Ragan - Aug 9 2011, 11:59

According to a report from CNCERT (China CERT), the Communist Party ruled nation suffered nearly 500,000 cyber attacks last year. The report comes shortly after experts blamed China for setting up a malicious server, which - over the last five years - harvested information from more than 90 organizations across the globe.

The Xinhua news agency, later backed by reports from the Associated Press, reported that the CNCERT data calculated 493,000 cyber attacks targeting the nation in 2010. Of those, nearly half originated from outside China. The report singles out the U.S. (14.7 percent) and India (8.0 percent), but makes no mentions of the top ranked locations.

In addition, the word from CNCERT is that most of the attacks came from Trojans, which often allow information theft and remote access. This is interesting, considering that just last week experts blamed China for using Trojans and a malicious server to harvest information from more than 90 organizations across the globe since 2006.

The alleged Chinese server was the central focal point to a report released by online security specialist McAfee. In addition, we here at Tech Herald Towers have examined the server for ourselves; the report on our findings can be read here.

Organizations targeted by the rogue server include the Associated Press, Thompson Reuters, The United Nations, the California Department of Justice, and the Olympic Committees in Japan, U.S., and (oddly enough) China.

An editorial in China’s People's Daily said that experts laying blaming for McAfee’s Shady RAT and its attacks at China's door, "does not hold water", adding that "it is irresponsible to link China to Internet hackers."

Yeah, because we all know hacking just doesn't happen in China at all.

Around the Web