China is stepping up efforts to combat computer hacking in the face of what the official China Daily newspaper describes as a drastic increase in such crimes.

The newspaper says the ministry of public security has approved a new system to protect business and government networks after tests showed that most had little security against hackers.

In one recent case, hackers attacked the site on the internet -- the international computer network -- of the official chinese society for human rights and denounced it as propaganda.

The BBC Beijing correspondent says the rapid growth in the use of computers - with one-million users now on the Internet -- is one of a range of new challenges facing the government.