The nation has faced a growing number of online threats from overseas and become the biggest victim of cyber attacks, a computer security monitoring network said.

Though China has improved its defense abilities in the cyber world in recent years, the situation of online attacks and threats in the country is still critical, a report issued by the National Computer Network Emergency Response Coordination Center of China revealed Wednesday.

Just over 98 percent of Chinese business websites had implemented standard protective measures against security threats in 2011, up from 92.25 percent in 2010 and 78.61 percent in 2009, the report said.

The number of government websites that were targeted by cyber attacks in 2011 decreased by 39.4 percent compared with 2010, the report said.

A total of 47,000 overseas-based Internet Protocol addresses (IPs) were involved in attacks against 8.9 million Chinese computers last year, compared to nearly 5 million targeted computers in 2010, according to the report.

Most of the IP addresses originated in Japan, the US and South Korea, the report said.

Shang Bing, vice minister of industry and information technology, said the development of technology related to cloud computing and wireless networking will complicate security concerns.

"We should highlight online security and improve our abilities in dealing with incidents triggered by improper information especially in the fields of finance, energy and transportation," said Zhao Hongyu, a vice director in crisis management with the State Council.

Global Times - Xinhua