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The U.S. National Infrastructure Protection Center Friday warned that network administrators should be on the look out for increased hacker activity -- originating in China -- between April 30 and May 7.

"Citing recent events between the United States and the People's Republic of China, malicious hackers have escalated Web page defacements over the Internet," the NIPC said in an advisory Friday. "Chinese hackers have publicly discussed increasing their activity during this period, which coincides with dates of historic significance to the PRC: May 1 is May Day (the most significant holiday on the communist calendar); May 4 is Youth Day; and May 7 is the anniversary of the accidental bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade."

The NIPC said hackers have already defaced a number of U.S. Web sites with pro-Chinese or anti-U.S. messages. The center also referred to the Lion worm, which targeted Linux machines and is believed to have originated in China.

"As a result of the activity already seen, together with public statements threatening increased illegal activity, network and system administrators are encouraged to more closely monitor their Web sites and mail servers during April 30, 2001 through May 7, 2001 for attacks that could include Web page defacements and denial-of-service attacks.

The center also said computer intrusions should be reported to local FBI offices, the NIPC or other appropriate authorities. Incidents can be reported to the NIPC online. The NIPC Watch and Warning Unit can also be reached at (202) 323-3204/3205/3206, or by e-mail.