Building digital China and cybersecurity should go hand in hand, IT expert says

More urgent efforts are needed to boost security capacity while promoting digital China so as to better address rising challenges and economic uncertainties, according to an industry insider.

Zhou Hongyi, chairman and CEO of 360 Security Group, said that security and development must be advanced simultaneously as building digital China has become a national strategy.

"Governments, enterprises, and everyone one of us must fully realize that in advancing digital transformation, security is no longer a vassal, but the foundation," Zhou said at the third Digital China Summit in Fuzhou, Fujian province, which ended on Wednesday.

"It is especially the case when the unexpected COVID-19 epidemic further accelerated the digital industrialization, forced the digitalization of the industry, and promoted digital governance. Now, digitalization has become a general consensus among all walks of life," he added.

However, during this process, Zhou noted that cybersecurity threats even surpass the traditional security threats to become "the biggest security threat".

"The risks of cybersecurity and data security will spread across all scenarios, including industrial production, finance, energy, medical care, and urban and social governance, meaning that they are directly related to business security, social security and even national security," he noted.

According to market consultancy IDC, China leads the world in digital economy but lags behind in the cybersecurity market. China occupies only 5.9 percent of the total global security market, while the US accounts for 44.2 percent of the total.

To solve the bottleneck, 360 unveiled the 360 Brain of Security, the world's first brain program in the cybersecurity sector. Based on AI technologies, the plan aims to address the security challenges brought by the intelligent era.

"We would like to cooperate with the whole industry and various government departments to build a national brain of security, to improve the country's overall response to security challenges in the digital world," he added.