Internet security efforts beefed up

Chinese cloud computing service providers are accelerating their efforts in cloud security, as both the government and companies face mounting cybersecurity pressures.

The country's digital economy is booming at an unprecedented rate. It was worth 27.2 trillion yuan ($4.29 trillion) in 2017, accounting for 32.9 percent of the nation's GDP.

"The digital economy has not only brought opportunities but also potential risks," said Zhang Wang, deputy director of the Cyberspace Administration of China, at a recent forum. "In the past few years, an array of problems have frequently happened, including security vulnerabilities, data leakage and cyber attacks, which pose great challenges to protecting individuals, companies and the nation," Zhang said.

Ye Xiaohu, senior vice-president of NSFOCUS, a Chinese cloud security service provider, said with threats like this on the horizon, building a system from the ground to cloud has become increasingly crucial to prevent cybersecurity attacks.

NSFOCUS recently unveiled its latest generation cybersecurity protection system, which enables companies to defend and act proactively against attacks. "The traditional way of protecting cloud security, which is passive and defense-oriented, cannot meet the mounting problems. It is important that a company can predict risks and be alert in advance, defend and deal with them in good time, and to analyze afterwards," Ye said.

Beijing-based NSFOCUS has scrambled to map out solutions in the cloud segment in the past few years. Its cloud solutions have been applied to telecommunication operators, financial institutions and governments both at home and abroad.

One of its products focuses on DDoS — distributed denial of service — a frequent attack encountered by companies when conducting cloud operations, which have helped companies to defend against attacks.

"Despite the increasing number of cloud security companies, China still needs to expand its investment in combating internet crimes and attacks," said Wu Zechao, an analyst from China Investment Securities, in an industry report.

Recent data showed that the country last year spent less than 1 percent of total IT-related investment on cybersecurity. In the United States that amount is 15 percent, while in Europe it is 10 percent.