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.