14 DAY TRIAL // While the United States keeps blaming China for many of the cyberattacks launched against the country’s networks, the latest report from China’s Computer Emergency Response Team (CNCERT) shows that US-based hosts are responsible for 30% of attacks against the Asian country’s computers.
According to the report, in 2013, a total of 61,000 websites were compromised, a 62.1% increase compared to the previous year. In addition to the United States, numerous attacks have also been traced back to South Korea and Hong Kong.
CNCERT reveals that a total of close to 11 million computers were compromised last year by foreign entities.
As far as government websites are concerned, 90% of provincial, municipal and local government sites were hijacked and fitted with backdoors. Many of the attacks were carried out by Anonymous hackers, hacktivists being responsible for breaching at least 600 websites.
CNCERT’s report also covers mobile malware. The agency highlights the fact that the pieces of mobile malware have more than tripled in 2013 compared to the previous year, most threats being designed to target Android devices.
The CERT also warns about backdoors in D-Link routers and other networking equipment being abused by cybercriminals to hijack user traffic.
In June 2013, after countless series of accusations from the US, CNCERT published a report to show that over 4,000 servers based in the US were used between January 1 and May 31 to compromise 2.91 million mainframe computers from China.
At the time, the agency claimed that it had mountains of data to prove that the US was attacking China in cyberspace.