Following up earlier reports that a Chinese military unit was
responsible to numerous hacking attacks against U.S.
companies, China's Defense Ministry today said that its web site
has been also a victim of U.S.-based attackers.
The Ministry of National Defense said that China, like other
countries, faces a severe threat of cyberattacks and is one of the
major victims of cyberattacks.
"In 2012, about 73,000 overseas IP addresses controlled more than
14 million computers in China and 32,000 IP addresses remotely
controlled 38,000 Chinese websites, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong
Lei said at a regular news conference on Tuesday.
"Attacks originating from the United States rank the first among
these hackings, Hong added."
He added that the Chinese army was also one of the top victims.
From January to March 2012, the websites of China's Ministry of
National Defense and China Military Online suffered 240,000
cyberattacks, according to the Ministry of National Defense.
This month security company Mandiant said that a secretive Chinese
military unit was likely behind a series of hacking attacks mostly
targeting the United States.
China denied the allegations.