China's massive internet infrastructure is extremely vulnerable to overseas cyber attacks, experts warned after a server malfunction redirected a large number of requests to wrong addresses for days.
China has seen an increasing number of cyber attacks targeting its key internet infrastructure, government and industrial bodies, said a report released by National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team Coordination Centre, a non-governmental agency monitoring China's internet safety.
The report, carried by state-run China Daily, said 21.8 per cent of malware attacks originated in the US while 3.3 per cent came from India.
The countries and regions mentioned also included South Korea, Germany, France, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
"Although protection methods have improved generally, the risk level for basic internet infrastructure remains high," the report said.
Last year, the centre detected more than 1,500 major security flaws from telecom carriers, triple the amount found a year previously.
Four days before the agency issued its warning, internet users on the Chinese mainland were finding it difficult to access a large number of websites that allow visitors to log in using Facebook accounts.
Page view requests to these websites were hacked and redirected to two addresses -- wpkg.Org, the home page of an open source software, and ptraveler.Com, a travel blog.
A senior staff member overseeing Internet operations at the coordination centre said: "It was a rather strange case because the hackers were directly targeting the telecom carriers' servers. It has rarely happened before.
Yesterday, the Chinese military opposed a new Pentagon cyber security strategy, saying it makes groundless accusations against China and will increase online arms race.
"The report makes groundless accusations about China, and we resolutely oppose it," Chinese Defence Ministry spokesman Geng Yansheng said.
The 33-page cybersecurity strategy document, the second by the Pentagon, says the Defence Department "should be able to use cyber operations to disrupt an adversary's command and control networks, military-related critical infrastructure and weapons capabilities."
The strategy lists China, Russia, Iran and North Korea as potential targets. It also includes a section on US concerns about Chinese cyber espionage against US firms and agencies.
"With its great edge in cyber technology and the strongest and largest cyber force in the world, the US declaration of offensive cyber strategy will not help manage or settle differences in cyberspace, but will strain conflicts and increase the arms race," Geng said.
