Building a Strong Shield for Digital Security

Source: People’s Daily.

At the 2021 national Cybersecurity Awareness Week, staff demonstrated how an ordinary robot vacuum could instantly become a tool for eavesdropping and spying. Targeting new telecom and online fraud techniques, the national anti-fraud app had over 65 million registered users nationwide by June and received 650,000 fraud leads reported by the public. At internet technology forums and conferences, cybersecurity is a focus of frontier technology and a hot topic among guests. As the tide of informatisation surges and internet technology releases digital dividends, it also brings cybersecurity problems. In cyberspace, where convenience and risk coexist, guarding cybersecurity is always a task in progress.

Today the internet is woven into every corner of society, and the internet of everything means, to some extent, the interconnection of risks, bringing many hidden dangers. Online voyeurism, illegal collection of personal information and online fraud harm personal property and privacy; cyberattacks and cyber espionage challenge social governance and national security. It has been stressed at the national level that without cybersecurity there can be no national security, no stable economic and social operation, and no adequate protection of the people’s interests. Cybersecurity today keeps expanding in scope: it concerns individual safety and corporate safety as well as national security, and has become an important issue of social and national governance. Building a digital society requires a strong shield for digital security.

A firewall of ideas and technology

As 5G, big data, cloud computing and the internet of things push deeper and data applications extend, cybersecurity, as a form of non-traditional security, keeps presenting new forms and features, and the importance and urgency of defending it grow ever clearer. We must handle the relationship between security and development well, protecting development with security and promoting security through development. For example, against new cyber threats, the old point-to-point defence must give way to protection that is moved forward and runs through the whole process of products and technology, consolidating the security foundation of information infrastructure; facing the bottleneck of core technology dependence, a secure and controllable information technology system must be built faster. Only by keeping key information infrastructure and core technologies in our own hands and raising the level of cybersecurity protection can we secure lasting stability.

Both a technical and a governance question

Building the shield is both a technical problem and a governance test. In recent years, in response to new situations and challenges in digital security, a series of laws and regulations has been introduced, from the Cybersecurity Law, the Data Security Law and the Regulations on Critical Information Infrastructure Security Protection to the Personal Information Protection Law, providing a solid legal guarantee for digital security. At the same time, from ongoing special governance of the illegal collection and use of personal information to concentrated campaigns against voyeur-camera black industries and coordination with national security organs on cyber defence, authorities at all levels have innovated means, pooled forces and stepped up the crackdown on related crimes, effectively safeguarding cybersecurity and protecting people’s digital rights. Cybersecurity threats are round-the-clock and uninterrupted; only sustained, long-term effort can keep tightening the protective net.

Cybersecurity is for the people and depends on the people. Building the line of defence requires proactive action by governments, enterprises and social organisations, and broad participation by all internet users. By June 2021, China had 1.011 billion netizens. In this vast information society, everyone is a producer, owner and user of data, and an indispensable link in the digital security chain. The national Cybersecurity Awareness Week has run for eight consecutive years precisely to mobilise people’s enthusiasm, initiative and creativity and erect a great wall for cybersecurity. In the internet age, netizens who share the convenience of the digital society should learn about cybersecurity, protect their own privacy and data, and consciously become cyber guardians contributing to cybersecurity and national security.

The internet binds countries more closely together; sharing opportunities also means facing challenges together. Cybersecurity is a global challenge; no country can stand apart, and maintaining cybersecurity is the common responsibility of the international community. Only when countries join hands to build a multilateral, democratic and transparent international internet governance system and jointly consolidate the security foundation of cyberspace can digital technology better benefit all humanity.

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