Hackers have attacked the Web site of the Chinese defense ministry more than 2 million times since it was launched three months ago, state media said yesterday.
“From the first day the national defense ministry Web site went online, it received a large volume of uninterrupted attacks,” Ji Guilin, the editor-in-chief of the Web site, told the People’s Daily in an interview.
“In the first month of operations there were more than 2.3 million hack attacks,” Ji said.
Ji did not say whether the attacks were launched from inside or outside China, but the assaults were largely ineffective given Web site security and safeguard measures, he said.
The attacks either tried to infiltrate the Web site in search of military secrets, or sought to disrupt the Web site operations, he added.
The ministry launched the Web site — including an English version — on Aug. 20 as part of a charm offensive aimed at countering foreign fears about China’s robust military modernization efforts.
The site includes news reports, official photos and videos, facts and figures about the military, and explanations of the country’s national defense policies. China’s Great Wall features in the logo.
Ji said that in the first three months of operations, the Web site received 1.25 billion hits, with up to 40 percent of them coming from Beijing and the provinces of Guangdong and Jiangsu.
Hits on the English version of the Web site mostly came from the US, Australia and Britain, he said, while US web users logged the most overseas hits on the Chinese-language site.
The ministry earlier said the Web site was designed to “let the outside world have a better perception of China’s national defence policy” and promote the army’s modernisation drive.
China has roughly doubled its military budget since 2006, government figures show, but which some overseas analysts say vastly downplay what Beijing actually spends.
China has the world’s largest military, with 2.3 million troops.
The Pentagon in recent years has raised concerns about China’s development of cruise and ballistic missiles, its 2007 test of a satellite-striking weapon, an apparent rise in cyber-espionage by China’s
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