State-owned enterprises participating in the Belt and Road Initiative and with overseas operations need to enhance their cybersecurity immediately in the wake of mounting threats to online data, a report released by the 360 Threat Intelligence Center on Friday said.

The center, which was launched by technology major Qihoo 360 Technology Co in 2015, released the report on the opening day of the four-day International Big Data Expo 2017 in Guiyang, capital of Guizhou province.

These days, many SOEs have operations across different economies and their information infrastructure level varies from market to market. Existing security programs will encounter new challenges and may prove inadequate, according to the report.

Such SOEs need to secure their confidential online communications and data pertaining to overseas project management and other such sensitive areas, the center said.

So, technologies like remote data transmission and cloud computing need to be integrated into companies' information technology systems, the center said.

Computer viruses, malware and other forms of threats like Trojans, phishing sites and unintended disclosure of confidential information are among the problems cited by the 14 SOEs surveyed for the report.

SOEs specializing in energy, infrastructure and transportation could face risks of attacks on their data in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, the report said.

Qi Xiangdong, chairman of 360 Business Security Group, an internet security company affiliated to Qihoo 360, stressed that cybersecurity is of utmost urgency, given recent episodes like that of ransomware virus WannaCry.

He said big data will likely be one of the major targets of high-tech criminals like hackers in the next decade or so.

"WannaCry virus signifies that hackers have outgrown defrauding individuals to extortion from governments and companies. I'm afraid such ransomware will become even more rampant in the future," he said.

"With the development of big data, cybersecurity has become as important as money and even life. So, cybersecurity systems of companies should be updated."

Qi suggested that an internet security awareness system should be set up in the first place. A centralized control system should then be established so that computer terminals can respond rapidly.