China was recorded as the world's second largest home of phishing sites, stated Websense's Security Trend Report for the second half of 2005. During the period, China was also ranked the number two country for location of crimeware sites. Crimeware is software tools built with the purpose of committing online scams and stealing information from consumer and business.
The report generated by Websense was found through scanning 75 million sites per day, said Geoff Haggart, vice president of Websense. As the blocking technologies used in most antivirus providers with becoming a commodity, he said the role detection and discovery of potential threats becomes more important.
"What's more important is to find out what should be blocked, which is the focus of Websense," he said. "Different from the undesirable content, which is often visible to users, embedded threats and virus is becoming a major hidden problem."
One of them is bot-infected computer, which was a major cyber threat last year, said Symantec.
"China had the highest number of bot-infected computers in the APAC region, accounting for 50 percent of the regional total," stated Symantec Internet Security Threat Report March 2006, which tracks cyber threats in the same period.
The report added, on a worldwide basis, China contributed nine percent of the total bot-infected computers detected in the second half o 2005. The country also experienced a high increase of bot-infected computers, with a growth of 37 percent, as compare to the average increase of 24 percentage points, said Symantec.
Bots are software agents used for computers to interact on the Internet. When bots are installed unknowingly by others for malicious purposes, the computer is noted as bot-infected computers. These computers operate in a coordinated faction under the direction of an attacker, who often takes control hundreds or thousands of computers to launch attacks, like DoS.
Symantec noted the availability of high-speed Internet is a significant factor determining the number bot infections. Therefore China's increase in bot-infected computers is likely related to its rapid growth of broadband Internet connection, said the company.
Another factor of determining bot infections is the security awareness of the population. "To reduce exposure to bot-related attacks, end users should employ defense in-depth strategies, including the deployment of antivirus and a firewall," stated the report.
Apart from being a major target, China was also a main source of cyber attack. The country contributed 14 percent of the attacks in the region accounted for the second highest during the period, said Symantec.