China ' victim of 500,000 cyber attack in 2010»

China's computer security agency claimed almost 15% of cyber-attacks on its organisations last year originated in the United States. Photo: Associated Press

China was hit by almost 500,000 cyber attacks last year, with almost half originating overseas, according to the country's computer security agency.

National network Emergency Response coordination data centre said 14,7% of attacks came from the United States and 8% from India.

The report follows the proposal Beijing might be behind the global cyber-attack in the last five years, targeting more than 70 government organisations.

A State newspaper called it "irresponsible" to link China with hacking the events reported by McAfee computer security firm.

China has not officially commented on the report but has previously denied charges of hacking.

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London 2012 OLYMPICS face increased cyber attack threat

London Olympic organizers say the threat of cyber attacks has increased since the Beijing Games. Photo: Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images

London OLYMPICS organizers warned today of increased threat of cyber-attacks that could fatally undermine the technical network that supports everything from recording the world records for relaying results for commentators.

London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (Locog) said it was "inevitable" that its systems were to turn off malicious attempts by hackers to bring them.

Reveal a new lab running simulations of millions of scenarios by venues with 200,000 hours of testing prior to 2012, chief information officer had Locog Gerry Pennell said the threat has increased since the OLYMPIC GAMES Beijing 2008.

' It is clear that cyber-security rises up agenda in this country and others. We take it very seriously. It occupies a significant portion of my time, "he said.

Patrick Adiba, chief executive of Locog's partner Atos Origin Iberia, said that during the Olympic Games in Beijing were 14 m "events" a day, around 400 who were "relevant events that could have been a problem that may have impacted on the games". All of them were blocked, he said.

"We want to get cyber attacks, secure. We are working very closely with our partners and with Government to ensure that we have been given the right level of defense against cyber attacks, "added Pennell.

"It would be, where typically a malicious Group launches an attack to bring down the game itself or the website. These kind of malicious attacks you can imagine people try to try. "

In December last year, a government safety review of the Olympic Games in monitored by Lady Neville-Jones warned that "the need for a reinforced strategy in mitigating the risks of cyber threats were identified".

It said an action plan was developed by Cyber-Security Office to meet the threat.

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Hackers will not be deterred by the UK cyber defences, new report warns

The report comes at a time of heightened awareness of online attack following hacking protests against businesses caught in the WikiLeaks controversy. Photo: Corbis

Military "cyber weapon" will be commonplace this century, but it would be unlikely to deter attacks by "hacktivists" and criminal gangs, and could easily be used for State-sponsored cyber attacks instead of the Organization for economic cooperation and development warns.

British authors of the study, which were released today, also caution "explicit lurid language" and lobbying the Government's technology companies distorts plans to protect the United Kingdom against cyber attacks.

Professor Peter Sommer of LSE and Dr. Ian Brown Oxford University internet Institute was commissioned by the OECD for one of a series of studies of potential "future global shocks".

Their report comes at a time of heightened awareness of online attack following hacking protests against businesses caught in the WikiLeaks controversy.

Answers to other hacking attacks from groups inside China and Russia, is military preparations started to gather pace, the study says. But it also warns: "it is not too difficult for nation States to configure discrete cyber attack units. Any agency that researcher for defensive purposes, the nature of cyber-attacks have all the knowledge required to originate attacks and disguise the fact they are doing.

"Little capital investment required … [en] almost all cyber attacks use hijacked, innocent zombie machines."

Brown says State-supported cyberwar will probably be more common because "cyber weapon will play a key role alongside more conventional and psychological attack of nation States in future warfare". However, the report warns: "a predominantly military [reply] to cyber security is a mistake. Most of the targets in the communications, energy, finance, food, Government, health, transport and water critical national infrastructure is in the private sector. Because it is often difficult to be certain who is attacking you from cyberspace, defence of deterrence is not. "

The authors suggest that "lean, just-in-time delivery systems", supplying supermarkets and manufacturers expose them to serious disturbance if large computer network go down.

"More effective is increasing resilience and robustness of critical systems and society in General … Add redundancy to systems allow some service must be continued, while damaged components in isolation, repair and replacement. Public panic buying can quickly enlarge these interruptions. During 2000 the fuel protests in the United Kingdom stores some imported food rationing. "NATO has created a pole of excellence on cyber defence in Estonia, and last year United States appointed its first cyber warfare General.

"UK [created] office of assurance cyber security and information (Ocsia) and a cyber security operations centre. At European level is Enisa, the European network and information security agency, "the report says.

Ocsia has approximately 20 persons working for it, to bring together experts from military, police and intelligence services. It is the lead agency coordinating £ 650 m cyber security program as the coalition Government announced in October last year.

Summer added: "we do not help us by using the ' cyberwar ' to describe espionage or hacktivist block or unreadable by websites, as seen recently in response to WikiLeaks. Nor is it useful to group the trivially avoidable events like virus and fraud with resolute attempt to interfere with the national infrastructure. "

Cyber warfare strategies and weapons include: unauthorized access to systems [hacking], viruses, and worms that spread across the Internet, Trojan horses, distributed denial of service attack that uses botnets, root-kits and use of social engineering.

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