The Chinese government has the reputation for overseeing one of the world’s largest and most active armies of computer hackers. But it seems this is an almost entirely offensive operation, and Beijing is not nearly as energetic in protecting its own sites against cyber-intruders. A recent analysis by China’s National Computer Virus Emergency Response Centre found that 50.4% of 2,714 government websites surveyed were riddled with over 21,000 security loopholes. The report said most of the sites were wide open to hackers who want to spread viruses or spam emails, or who want to collect saleable confidential information.
