Efforts in cybersecurity highlighted at conference

As ensuring data security is of vital significance to bolstering the high-quality development of China's digital economy, intensified efforts should be made to fend off increasing cyberattacks that target critical information infrastructure, officials and experts said at the 2023 Beijing Cyber Security Conference on Thursday.

Guo Tao, deputy head of the cybersecurity coordination bureau at the Cyberspace Administration of China, highlighted the importance of safeguarding cybersecurity in a challenging environment, saying the focus should be on enhancing the capacity to ensure cybersecurity, strengthen the protection of critical information infrastructure security, and building an effective ecosystem for the integrated development of the education and technology sectors.

Guo said it is necessary to further implement relevant requirements, laws and regulations on cybersecurity, refine implementation rules and guidance for related laws and regulations as well as further improve the support system.

Zhou Shaoqing, a cybersecurity official with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said more efforts are needed to enhance the protection of the industrial internet, as well as step up technological innovation and make breakthroughs in cybersecurity technologies so as to bolster the digital transformation of enterprises.

Zhou also stressed the need to improve related policies that support the development of the cybersecurity sector, as well as nurture more cybersecurity enterprises and high-level talent.

Qi Xiangdong, chairman of cybersecurity firm Qi-Anxin Technology Group, said new cybersecurity challenges have emerged with the rapid development and application of next-generation information technologies, which has necessitated higher requirements for data security.

As an important strategic resource, data has shown immense value along all links of production, Qi said, adding that data security is more important than ever, and he called for enhanced efforts to deal with new data security problems.

In the intelligent era, only through improving data security protection capabilities can a nation better deal with cybersecurity risks, and the company will continuously innovate in cybersecurity technologies to deal with rising cyberattacks, he said.

China aims to increase the size of its data security market to over 150 billion yuan ($21.8 billion) by 2025, with a compound annual growth rate of more than 30 percent, according to a government guideline.

"Currently, China's digital security system has taken shape and has gradually become a new engine to safeguard the development of the digital economy and national security," said Zhang Li, head of the China Center for Information Industry Development.

Looking ahead, Zhang said laws and policies targeting new technologies and applications will be continuously improved, requirements for key areas such as risk assessment on data classification and cross-border data transfer will be further refined, and technical standards in critical subfields will be repeatedly updated.

Zhang said China's digital security industry has reached a scale of over 100 billion yuan, and it is estimated that the scale will exceed 1 trillion yuan by 2028.

Fang Binxing, an academician from the Chinese Academy of Engineering, underscored the importance of protecting personal privacy in the process of data circulation and trading so as to fully unleash the massive value of data resources.

"In the next three to five years, the widespread use of new technologies like artificial intelligence will have a significant impact on all industries, which will also bring forth many security issues," said Wu Lianfeng, IDC China vice-president and chief research analyst.

According to a report from IDC, China will continue to lead the growth of the global cybersecurity market in the coming five years, with the market size expected to reach $17.9 billion in 2023.