Security risks found in half of China's government websites

BEIJING -- As an increasing number of government organizations embrace the digital age by going online, website security for their domains are at high risk for cyber attacks, a survey by the National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center has discovered.

The center found that 1,367 of the 2,714 government websites surveyed in 2013, or 50.4 percent of the total, contained security vulnerabilities.

More than 21,000 security risks were discovered among government websites, with malware such as trojan horses, phishing plug-ins and theft of user information being the top culprits.

The survey also found many government websites are poorly coded, leaving loopholes that easily compromise the site. In many cases, basic protection measures such as firewalls and anti-virus software were no where to be seen.

A Thursday report from China Youth Daily said hacking attacks on Chinese government websites are on the rise.

In August, the official website of Longshan County government in Hunan Province was paralyzed by a hacker, who was brazen enough to leave a domain name as a form of calling card after the attack. In 2013, a county-level government website in Anhui province had gambling advertisements forcibly coded into the site.

Also in 2013, a local government website in Northeast China's Liaoning province had to shut down after it automatically redirected to a pornographic website.

The report said government websites were launched only because local officials were ordered to and they don't have the motivation or resources to improve the daily operation of the website.

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