Hong Kong ( CNN ) -- China has acknowledged that a number of its websites have fallen victim to attack by hackers following a mass campaign by the Anonymous network . Hackers belonging to the global band of online activists this week claimed to have compromised almost 500 sites belonging to the Chinese government , organizations and businesses . The cyber attackers plastered the sites with subversive messages , condemning what they described as Beijing 's `` evil regime '' and warning `` Your government has been in control of your network and filters harmful things . Careful . '' While official news sites in China made no mention of the hacking claims , the matter was raised at a briefing of China 's Ministry of Foreign Affairs Thursday . In a three-part answer , spokesman Hong Lei said that `` certain reports prove again '' that Chinese sites had been hacked . `` First of all , China 's Internet is open to all , users enjoy total freedom online . China has gained 500 million netizens and 300 million bloggers in a very short period of time , which shows the attraction and openness of China 's Internet , '' Hong said . `` Secondly , the Chinese government manages the Internet according to law and regulations . Thirdly , certain reports prove again that China is a victim of internet hacker attacks . '' On Friday , searches for comments on hacking yielded re-posts of the MoFA statement : `` we have an open , free cyberspace in China . ' '' One user on the Weibo micro-blogging site posted in response : `` Open ? How dare you brainwash your people that ? '' The mass attack comes less than a week after the country suspended comments on China 's most popular micro-blogging sites , Sina 's Weibo and Tencent 's QQ . The two-day suspension was necessary to `` clean up rumors and other illegal information spread through microbloggings , '' according to state-run news service Xinhua . Authorities also closed 16 websites and detained six people for allegedly spreading rumors of `` military vehicles entering Beijing and something wrong going on in Beijing , '' a spokesperson for the State Internet Information Office told Xinhua . China 's internet was rife with rumors last month of an alleged coup attempt after the shock dismissal Communist Party politburo member and Chongqing party chief Bo Xilai . Cyberspace discussions on Bo 's fate have since been censored . News of the Anonymous attack in China was spread on Twitter through @ AnonymousChina , a relatively new account with less than 3,000 followers at the time of writing . Its first tweet was posted on March 30 and linked to a Chinese website with the words `` Hacked by Anonymous . '' A list of nearly 500 sites allegedly hacked were posted on pastebin . Tweets suggested some were targeted more than once , including the CBD site of Chengdu , the capital of the Sichuan province in the country 's south west -- @ AnonymousChina : `` http : //cdcbd.gov.cn/ http : //www.qnwqdj.gov.cn/ http : //www.bbdj.gov.cn/ redefaced lol , your security still suck . '' At the time of writing , no posts had been made on the Twitter feed for some 12 hours . While Xinhua did not carry news of the alleged Anonymous hackings , it has reported on their activities in the past . In February , it reported that the group had taken down the websites of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency ( CIA ) and Alabama state government . Soon after that attack , top members of Anonymous and its offshoots were arrested and charged after a wide-ranging investigation that was assisted by a group leader working as a secret government informant . The FBI informant , `` Sabu , '' was a part of the elite AntiSec hackers . In recent years , Anonymous has been involved in some of the most high-profile cyberattacks on the Web -- hobbling the websites of governments and businesses , hacking into sites to reveal private data and , along the way , getting dubbed cyberterrorists by authorities in the United States and elsewhere . The network 's motto is `` We are Legion , '' and it describes itself as `` a decentralized network of individuals focused on promoting access to information , free speech , and transparency . '' CNN 's Shao Tian contributed to this report .
Beijing acknowledges hacker attack on Chinese websites . Bo claimed to have defaced 16 sites . Message referred to China 's `` evil regime '' and warned readers to be `` careful '' Follows China 's temporary suspension of comments on microblogs .