If they had succeeded, "that would have been far worse and would have increased the difficulties the government faces in ensuring online security", he added.

Chinese companies and Internet service providers have been urged to invest more time, energy and money into developing online security systems.

"Even though the nature of cyber attacks varies, they generally utilize vulnerabilities in the system to penetrate into computer systems," software virus expert Evgeny Aseev told China Daily.

Aseev, who heads the Asia-Pacific virus laboratory for Kasperky, a Russian security software company, said malicious software, or malware, is used in more than 20 percent of cyber attacks.

He pointed out that many holes still exist in the security of websites maintained by governments and enterprises, which makes them vulnerable targets, while the popularity of social networking sites has made it easy for hackers to lure users into unwittingly downloading malware.

Internet users can increase their security by regularly updating their system software and watching out for strange website links while using instant messaging tools, he said, adding that keeping important files data encrypted and using intricate passwords are equally important.

Investigations

Kang Kai, the owner of Thinkmo, a website dedicated to learning English in Tianjin, said his website suffered at least one attack every month.

"As a small Internet company, we can't afford to employ a big maintenance team. We can only resort to private IT professionals after each attack," he said.

To assist attacked private websites and maintain online security, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has launched several investigations since June, and authorities prevented the spread of online viruses 14 times last year, the report said.

However, China has also been the source of attacks on networks in other countries.

"Our team received more than 500 complaints from foreign network associations last year," Zhou said. "Internet security is not one country's duty. It's a global issue."

China has established arrangements with 40 countries and 79 organizations to tackle cyber attacks, the report said.