China rejects allegations it hacked Taiwan networks A senior Chinese official has rejected allegations from Taiwan's government that Beijing is increasing its attempts to hack into the island's computer networks. Cyber security has become a growing concern in Taiwan, where some senior government officials, including President Ma Ying-jeou, say that China continues to launch cyber attacks against Taiwan even as the relationship between the two sides has warmed in recent years. Since Mr Ma was first elected in 2008, the two sides have agreed measures to boost bilateral trade, and further agreements aimed at liberalising investment are expected to be sealed in the coming months. Concerns about threats to Taiwan's national security remain, however. Taiwan's National Security Bureau on Monday released a report to the legislature saying mainland China has more than 100,000 people working in its "cyber army" and has broadened its targets to include Taiwanese think tanks, technology companies and telecom systems. The bureau said it will increase its investment in cyber defence, as the defence ministry also devotes more troops to focusing on cyber security issues. Yet Sun Yafu, vice minister of China's Taiwan Affairs Office, said China is being wrongly blamed by other nations for cyber attacks. There are a lot of people saying that the cause of the problems is from China. I just don't get it," said Mr Sun, speaking on the sidelines of a conference in Taipei. If it has the possibility to become an issue between both sides, I would suggest let's sit down and talk about this. What is the reality? Cyber security, he said, "is going to be more and more serious. It causes serious damage to economies . . . But, it very, very often is we who are the ones people blame it on. I think this needs to be clarified. Nations including the US have gone public with their concerns about China-sponsored cyber attacks, and companies are acknowledging the risks cyber crime poses to their intellectual property and customer data. According to Taiwan's National Security Bureau, hackers are now targeting private companies, including some in the telecommunications sector, as their networks are sometimes less well protected than the state systems but can provide an entry point through which hackers can access the government's servers. As Taiwan stepped up its defences, it found that the number of successful cyber attacks against state networks decreased last year, said Hsiao Hsiu-Chin, director of the government task force on information security. Taiwan's government last year was hit by 251 successful cyber attacks, mostly from mainland China, that stole information or damaged networks, said Ms Hsiao in testimony on Monday to the Taipei legislature. That, she said, is down from more than 300 successful attacks discovered in 2011. That does not count hacking attacks against Taiwanese companies which, as in the US and Europe, are not required to and often do not report attacks against them. Additional reporting by Jason Liu in Taipei