According to the October 2003 Internet Security Threat Report issued by Symantec, the world leader in Internet security, China was the second largest source of security attacks in the first of 2003 with 5.4 per cent of all attacks launched for systems-based in China.

Among other nations, India ranked 24th, Australia 14th, and South Korea 4th. The report included analysis of data from Symantec Managed Security Services customers as well as more than 20,000 DeepSight Threat Management System registered sensors worldwide monitoring attack activity in more than 180 countries, and covered network-based attacks, a review of vulnerabilities discovered and exploited, and highlights of malicious code trends.