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.
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China acknowledges hacker attack on Chinese websites
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Anonymous China claimed to have defaced almost 500 sites
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Message referred to Beijing's "evil regime" and warned readers to be "careful"
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Follows China's temporary suspension of comments on microblogs
Its first tweet was posted on March 30 and linked to a @placeholder website with the words "Hacked by Anonymous."