The Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) Chinese-language website has been hacked by cybercriminals.

Security company Kaspersky Lab warned that the website belonging to the Tibetan government-in-exile, headed by the Dalai Lama, was compromised.

Experts at the security firm believe that the hackers may have used malicious software to spy on visitors.

Kaspersky Lab said that,Tibet.net, based in Dharamshala, northern India, has been under constant attack from the same group of hackers since 2011, but previous breaches have been quietly identified and repaired before attracting significant attention.

Kurt Baumgartner, a researcher at Kaspersky Lab, said the hackers used a method known as a "watering hole attack".
He added: "This is the initial foothold. From there they can download arbitrary files and execute them on the system."

An investigation has revealed that the hackers have carried out cyber-attacks on human rights groups in Asia before.

The 14th Dalai Lama, considered to be a separatist threat by China, fled Tibet in 1959 after a failed anti-Chinese uprising, and set up a government-in-exile.