Mainland malware infections down for fourth year

Fewer than 6 million computers on the Chinese mainland were infected by malware last year, marking the fourth consecutive year of decline, a network security report released on Tuesday said.

About 5.81 million mainland computers were attacked last year by malware, such as Trojans and botnets, down 11.3 percent year-on-year, the National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team and Coordination Center of China said in the report. The figure in 2015 was 19.78 million.

About 56,000 malware servers overseas controlled about 5.52 million computers on the mainland, it said, adding the servers were mainly in the United States, Japan and Hong Kong.

The malware problem in the mobile telecommunication network was also alleviated last year, due to joint efforts by the center and mobile network operators to discover and block malicious software, the report said.

Thanks to efforts to strictly control the transmission routes of malware and effectively prevent the mobile network from being attacked, 3,057 pieces of malware on 319 mobile application platforms were eradicated last year, it said.