China said Tuesday it was hit by nearly 500,000 cyberattacks last year, about half of which originated from foreign countries including the United States and India.

The news comes just days after US firm McAfee said it had uncovered a massive global cyber spying campaign it described as a "five-year targeted operation" by one unnamed actor -- which many analysts said was China.

According to a government report, most of the attacks on China came in the form of Trojan software -- a malicious programme that masquerades as an application -- the official Xinhua news agency said.

Nearly 15 percent of the destructive programmes came from IP addresses in the United States, while another eight percent originated in India, said the report by the National Computer Network Emergency Response Coordination Centre.

China, which has the world's largest online population with 485 million users, has itself been accused of spearheading online attacks on government agencies and companies, although Beijing has always denied this.

Chinese state media lambasted claims that China was behind the sophisticated hacking effort uncovered by McAfee, calling them "irresponsible".

According to the US computer security firm, victims of the attack included the governments of Canada, India, South Korea, Taiwan, the United States and Vietnam.

In June, Internet giant Google said a cyber-spying campaign originating in China had targeted Gmail accounts of senior US officials, military personnel, journalists and Chinese political activists.

The computers of Australia's prime minister, foreign and defence ministers were also suspected of being hacked in March, with China under suspicion.

earlier related report
Taiwan opposition party accuses China of hacking
Taipei (AFP) Aug 9, 2011 - Taiwan's main opposition party on Tuesday accused hackers backed by the Chinese state of stealing information related to its presidential campaign in the run up to elections in January 2012.

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which favours Taiwan's independence from China, said that in the last four months, it had traced more than a dozen cyber attacks to Chinese IP addresses.

It said that hackers mainly targeted its presidential campaign planning as the party gears up for elections against the incumbent Ma Ying-jeou of the Beijing-friendly Kuomintang party.

"We believe it is a common practice for Chinese authorities to employ hackers to steal information abroad, and it poses a serious threat to global Internet safety," said spokesman Chen Chi-mai.

The accusation comes after the California-based computer security firm McAfee said last week that 72 targets across 14 countries were victims of a massive global cyber spying campaign, with China seen as the likely culprit.

Chinese state media decried that allegation as "irresponsible".

Taiwan and China have spied on each other ever since they split in 1949 at the end of a civil war. Beijing still regards the island as part of its territory awaiting reunification, by force if necessary.

Observers say the DPP chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen, who is running against Ma in the elections, is the candidate less favoured by China.

Taiwan's government websites have frequently faced cyber attacks, usually during disputes between the island and the mainland.

Taiwan's National Security Bureau said last year that it was targeted by nearly half-a-million cyber attacks each month, although only about 12 percent were from China while the majority originated from the island itself.

A top Taiwanese prosecutor in charge of probing several major scandals, including a Chinese spy case, was also targeted by Chinese hackers late last year. They reportedly obtained confidential information from his home computer.

The DPP's Chen said the party has been collecting evidence of the recent cyber attacks against its presidential campaign, which will be forwarded to the police.