China hit by almost half a million cyber attacks in 2010

China has been hit with almost half a million cyber attacks last year, claims a report by the country’s National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team/Coordination Center (CNCERT/CC).

Most of these attacks aim to install spying and downloader Trojans on the targeted computers, says the organization. Of the 493,000 detected attacks, 221,000 originated from outside of China, reports China Daily. Of those, 14.7 percent originated from US IP addresses and eight percent from Indian ones.

35,000 Web pages – among which 4,635 belonging to the government – have also been tampered with. Interestingly enough, some of the attacks against the government pages have been traced back to Turkish IPs, and the attackers defaced them by putting up political and religious-themed content.

But, the report says, there were also instances where hackers had no other motivation except showing off their skills. And when it comes domestic attacks, phishing sites mimicking online banking and payment pages are also on the rise.

More details about the attacks will be revealed at the end of the week, when the full report is due to be released, but the numbers seem to lend credence to the claims repeatedly made by the Chinese government that it does not condone hacking and that it is also a big target for individuals engaging in it.

The Chinese government has yet to comment on the recently released McAfee report that uncovered an unprecedented state-sponsored global cyber attack, regarding which many speculate has been initiated by China.