At least 80 per cent of computers in China have been affected by viruses, which increasingly spread through file downloading and Internet surfing, a computer security monitoring organization said Wednesday.

Half of the infected machines have suffered data loss, unbootable systems or difficulty in browsing the Web, the National Computer Virus Emergency Response Centre said in its latest survey.

"Only 16 per cent of computer users we sampled this year reported they were free from any virus attack, while last year, nearly one in three users said they suffered no computer infections," said Zhang Jian, chief engineer of the State-funded institution in Tianjin.

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