China accuses US and Japan of cyberattacks

In a interesting turn of events, China accuses Japan and the US of cyberattacks...

We are victims too, Chinese CERT claims

By John E Dunn, TechWorld March 21, 2012 04:05 PM ET

China is on the receiving end of a growing volume of cyberattacks with Japan and the US the biggest culprits, the country's National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team (CNCERT/CC) has announced.

The number of infected computers it had detected reached 8.9 million in 2011, up from 5 million a year earlier it said, many infected with data-stealing Trojans.

It also said that 10,593 Chinese websites were being "controlled" by 11,851 foreign IP addresses, with a total of 1,116 websites, including 404 Government sites, defaced from outside the country.

Pointedly, the report blamed Japan for 22.8 percent of these attacks, just ahead of the US on 20.4 percent, with South Korea third on 7.1 percent. The other 50 percent of attacks were not broken down.

"This shows that Chinese websites still face a serious problem from being maliciously attacked by foreign hackers or IP addresses," CNCERT's Wang Minghua was reported as saying during a news conference.

The very public announcement is a reminder that while China is usually the country being accused of industrial-scale cyberhacking, such activities work in both directions. Attacking other countries eventually brings back the same treatment upon your own systems...

...this rather interesting story continues at Cyberwar Central.

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