Authorities punished the administrators of 471 illegal public relations (PR) websites and cracked dozens of related cases in a two-month crackdown that was launched in April.

In a prominent case cited on Thursday by the Ministry of Public Security, three suspects were detained for hacking a website operated by Redbaby, an online retailer of infant products, after the company refused to delete comments posted on its online forum.

The three suspects were hired by a photography company in March to threaten Redbaby to delete posts that were deemed to have a negative influence on the company, the ministry said in a statement, adding that the hacking caused problems for Redbaby`s online sales and advertising.

The suspects admitted to participating in more than ten cyberattacks since 2010 as part of their illegal online PR deals, from which they gained about 10,000 yuan (1,540 U.S. dollars), said the statement.

Official figures show that more than 790,000 online posts and articles, as well as 1.65 million cached pages that contained illegal PR content, had been deleted during the campaign as of the end of June.

"Cracking down on the issue is a long-term and arduous task that will require integrated efforts such as improvements to the legal system, strengthened management and public scrunity," the ministry said.