The stealth online invasion of personal computers in the mainland has intensified, creating the world's largest army of 'zombie' machines that are used for co-ordinated attacks - including relaying spam and other malicious programs - against targeted industries and home internet users, a report says.
Anti-virus software vendor Symantec's 11th Internet Security Threat Report released today said the mainland accounted for 26 per cent of more than six million computers worldwide that were found infected by bots - programs covertly installed in a computer to allow an unauthorised user to remotely control the machine - during the second half of last year.
These compromised computer networks, also known as botnets, are used by intruders to perform denial-of-service attacks, mass-mail spam, harvest confidential information for use in identity theft, and distribute spyware, adware and carry out phishing.
The larger percentage of botnets in a country roughly translated to a bigger potential of bot-related attacks to launch or strike in that market, the report said.
The mainland was credited with 10 per cent of all malicious internet activity monitored worldwide between July 1 and December 31 last year, the second-highest behind the United States' 31 per cent.
The country was also second to the US as the leading origin of attacks in the Asia-Pacific region during that period. Thirty-seven per cent of all spam detected by Symantec in the region, for example, originated in the mainland.