The government says its efforts to counter cyber-terrorism appear to be paying off.

The Ministry of Information and Communication said Monday that the nation ranked ninth last year in a list of source countries of cyber-terrorism drawn up by the U.S.-based Internet security firm Symantec. The ranking represents a sharp drop in online crimes from 2002, when the nation ranked second in the index after the United States. In 2003, the nation came in seventh and has remained at the ninth spot since 2004.

The ministry attributed the drop mainly to active measures to identify cyber crimes and maintain online safety, including the opening of a cyber-crime watch system in February 2003 that monitors Internet traffic 24 hours a day.

Meanwhile, the United States maintained the dubious honor of ranking atop the cyber-terrorism source country index for the fourth straight year.