Experts say China needs to beef up cyber security (2)

A growing number of Chinese companies are turning to overseas Web security companies for protection, a move which still leaves them vulnerable to attacks, according to a report published by Rising in January.

In addition, as a growing number of Chinese companies are using mobile devices in their business, security breaches are more likely.

"Chinese companies have done very little to protect the mobile devices their employees are using, but the fact is that smartphones and tablets are widely used in the financial sector," said Tang Tiebing, a security expert at NQ Mobile Inc, a leading mobile security provider.

A total of 420 million people in China were using mobile phones to log on the Internet in 2012, an increase of more than 18 percent year-on-year, according to the China Internet Network Information Center.

Because most company executives are using smartphones or tablets to access business e mail or undisclosed company information, breaches of mobile devices could cause greater damage to the target companies, said Tang.

"Although no major data losses were reported in the mobile sector, it does not mean that the service is safe," he added. "It is highly possible somebody has been using mobile devices to collect company information for quite some time without being caught."

Attacks targeting Chinese companies are set to grow in frequency as the nation's economic power strengthens.

"Whoever is behind the attacks does not necessarily use the stolen information to aid their own business because most of them are more developed than their Chinese counterparts. But it is still worth probing a fast-growing economy to retain a competitive advantage," said Liu from Rising.