The Information and Communication Ministry has announced tougher measures to deter online identity theft from China in the wake of the scandal involving the online game "Lineage."

In a meeting Tuesday of the ministry, the Culture and Tourism Ministry and staff from online gaming firms, the government decided to block fake Internet protocol addresses suspected of being used to log on game sites with another person's identity from abroad.

Security patches will also go to portal and game sites and daily monitoring on some 70,000 domestic Web sites will look for malignant codes.

The Information and Communication Ministry will block some 2,600 fake IP addresses to prevent the theft of private data.