Cybersecurity

China-Based Cyber Attacks Rise at Meteoric Pace

The director of malware research at Dell SecureWorks in front of large wall mounted monitors in his office in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Photographer: Stephen Morton/Bloomberg

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By Mark Milian and Jordan Robertson

April 23, 2013 at 9:33 PM UTC

Updated on

April 23, 2013 at 5:00 AM UTC

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In describing the destructive effects of an Internet attack, a Chinese general this week compared it to a nuclear bomb. If that's the case, his country has been firing off a record number of online missiles.

China accounted for 41 percent of the world's computer-attack traffic in the fourth quarter of last year, according to a report from Akamai Technologies expected to be published later today. The U.S. was a distant second with 10 percent.