May 29 (NBD) -- The amount of data created in China is expected to account for 20 percent of the world's total by 2020, Chen Zhaoxiong, Vice Minister of Industry and Information Technology said at the China International Big Data Industry Expo 2018 held in Guiyang, capital of southwest China's Guizhou province.

China enacted the law to ensure cyber security as early as 2016 and released a whitepaper to standardize big data safety in 2018. 

However, the cyber-security law should be strictly enforced and the self-protection capability of corporations should be improved so as to take data created under control, said Wei Hao, director general of the China Information Security Certification Center.

Ni Guangnan, academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering, echoed the opinion, adding China should reduce the dependency on technology support from foreign countries in the telecom industry in order to prevent possible supply chain risks.

The cyberattack against Ukraine's power grid system in 2015 and the massive internet outage in the U.S. in 2016 signal that the information technology infrastructure is vulnerable target of attacks. Thus, to protect such key infrastructure constitutes a vital part of the network security.

China responded by drafting a security regulation on information technology-based infrastructure in 2017.

Bo Yumin, chief engineer of the Certification and Accreditation Administration of China, commented that certified infrastructure will ensure the safety and quality of big data, and facilitate data-sharing as well.

The lack of a defensive system makes computers vulnerable to cyber attacks, which has to be addressed in design stage, noted Shen Changxiang, another academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering. Shen called for the building of computer infrastructure that emphasizes both high computing and defensive capability.

With the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) initiated by the EU taking effect, data safety once again became the hot topic.

Yang Meng, head of block chain business at Beijing Genomics Institute, acknowledged the emphasis that the GDPR has given to the protection of gene data, adding that the company protects data privacy for every customer,the whole data processing is under supervision, and the supervision system is traceable.

In the era of big data, individual data security is as important as national security, said Wei.

Although protection of individual data privacy has been written in the cyber-security law, leakage of personal data happens from time to time in China and there even exists a black chain that trades data.

The recognition of the importance of data privacy, the willingness and the capability of corporations to protect private data lag behind, added Wei.

But it's noted that many firms present at the Expo expressed their respect for personal data. 

Email: tanyuhan@nbd.com.cn