Over 36,000 websites subjected to cyber attacks in China

Beijing: Over 36,000 websites and 40,000 webpages were subjected to cyber attacks in China last year, according to a new report.

Last year, 4,761 IP addresses in the US controlled 5,580 Chinese websites through backdoor programmes, which can allow them to bypass normal authentication to secure illegal remote access to a computer, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Over 36,969 websites had been tampered with in 2014, and backdoors implanted in 40,186 webpages, a report released by Internet Society of China and the National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team/Coordination Center of China said.

In addition, Chinese authorities detected 93,136 phishing websites in 2014, 2.1 times more than the number reported in 2013.

Phishing attacks are generally accomplished through fraudulent websites that appear legitimate by using addresses or login pages that mimic those of authentic sites, the report said.

China's netizen population, the world's largest, had reached 649 million by the end of 2014.