More than half of foreign cyberattacks against China in 2019 originated in the US, China report says
- China recently tightened its cybersecurity rules, requiring “critical information infrastructure” to undergo a more rigorous review process
More than half of computer malware attacks in China from overseas entities in 2019 originated in the US, according to data from a government-affiliated cybersecurity team.
The total amount of computer malware attacks captured by the National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team (CNCERT) was over 62 million in 2019, and around 53.5 per cent of foreign attacks were from the US, lower than a year before when there were in excess of 100 million incidents, the Team said.
Russia and Canada were the second and third largest contributors to computer malware attacks against China, accounting for 2.9 and 2.6 per cent respectively of the total number of foreign attacks.
The number of new malicious attacks directed against mobile networks was nearly 2.8 million in 2019, 1.4 per cent lower than a year earlier, the first decline in such attacks in five years, according to CNCERT.
CNCERT, which issued a cybersecurity report on Tuesday, describes itself officially as a “non-governmental non-profit” agency but a 2019 job post on their website said it sits “directly under the Cyberspace Administration of China,” the nation's top internet watchdog.