Cyber Gatekeepers – A National Priority
As China begins to feel the impact of speedy economic growth taking place without any equivalent development in Cyber Gatekeepers, China’s President Xi Jinping has made Cyber Gatekeepers now a national priority. China’s National Computer Network emergency Response Technical Team which is non-profit agency, in May, had stated that it had recorded 9,068 incidents of data leaks in 2014, which was thrice the time as in 2013.
This reflected the `grim challenges’ of Chinese cyber security as per official Xinhua news agency. Companies are now collecting across China to resolve this issue as per industry observers, comprising of young techies with excellent security skills as well as work experience, at firms such as Alibaba, Baidu Inc. and Tencent Holdings Ltd.
China is speculating that the ultimate, domestic cyber security would provide several of the companies with defences against hacking instead of relying on foreign firms like Kaspersky, Symantec and EMC Corps’ RSA.The steady expertise of China’s bedroom hackers hints the rise as an economic as well as technological force and at times conflicted position in the rising global data security arms race.
Recent Sophisticated Attacks – Large Scale Data Theft
The U.S. government has recognized recent sophisticated attacks which include the large scale data theft from the Office of Personal Management – OPM, to advanced state-affiliated teams, from China. However, earlier hackers state the majority of their peers have joined growing industry in order to support China firms and fending off the various attacks which they faced.
On the other hand, China has denied of any connection with the OPM attack and not much is known about the identities of those involved. Reuters had been informed by the Cyberspace Administration of China, through fax, in a June 19that it opposes `any form of network attack and does not allow any groups or individuals to engage in network-attacking activities, within its borders.
Cyber security industry’s growth was urged by government restriction on China’s hacking community some five years back during the time Beijing had passed a series of law prohibiting hacking and spamming tools with the need of telecom operations to help in suppressing the attacks.
Online Forums Silenced by Government
Wild online forums such as kanxue.com had been largely silenced by Government sweeps, where hackers had traded tips and bragged about their conquests. Several opted to shift from `black hat’ activities to `white hat’ ones utilising their skills in identify network vulnerabilities, in order they could be fixed. According to an anonymous hacker who did not wish to be identified, stated that `many people feel that now white hats have some space to do things, or make money, while hackers can’t do bad things anymore’.
However, with the present progress, there seems to be a long and laborious struggle wherein China is stating that is often the target of sophisticated attacks from overseas. Chinese security company Qihoo 360 Technology Co Ltd. has issued, last month, a report stating that it had discovered a series of cyber intrusions against Chinese goals which lasted for years and these included a government maritime agency, research institutions as well as shipping companies. Zhang Tianqui, chief technology officer of Shanghai based Cyber Gatekeepers firm that owns Vulbox.com, a site offering rewards for vulnerability discoveries and internet security media site FreeBuf.com, had stated the while China is always being blamed for hacking attacks, the country tends to play catch up with United States on Cyber Gatekeepers and cyber espionage fronts.
