CNCERT: Surge in Attacks on Chinese Government Websites

Via Hostexploit.com -

At a conference for security professionals held in Beijing on Wednesday, the Chinese National Response Center (CNCERT) released its report on the state of computer network security in China in 2010. The report reveals that attacks on websites decreased by more than 21 percent but hackers increasingly targeted government agency websites with attacks jumping up by 67.6 percent.

The report contains the results of a number of detailed and scientific analyses and evaluates the threats being posed on a national and international level. The needs of users in China today, from basic network security to public network environments through to network information systems are assessed with advice and suggestions on how best to face the ever increasing challenges posed in a fast paced technological environment.

The overriding message of the report is that Chinese Government’s website security is weak as the increase in targeted attacks all too clearly illustrates. It notes too that this is problem for governments of all developed countries which urgently needs to be addressed. Similarly China is struggling to keep financial institutions protected from cybercriminals in an environment where Trojans and botnets are posing a major threat to network security. The increasing proliferation of mobile malware is also cause for concern along with the serious challenges posed by attacks on industrial control systems.

The report emphasizes the importance that China places on the protection of industrial control systems and recommends that all major systems should take immediate action to protect network security from external attack.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology reports that despite a crackdown on networks hosting malicious botnets, in collaboration with domain name registrars and internet service providers, systems have struggled to keep Trojans at bay with a significant increase over 2009. CNCERT found that nearly 5 million IP addresses were infected by a Trojan in 2010.