Digital transformation creates opportunities

Zuo Yingnan, vice-president of Chinese cybersecurity company Qi An Xin Group, said Chinese companies are scrambling to embrace the industrial internet and cloud to upgrade their businesses, and more efforts are needed to ensure the security of industrial computers and data.

"The industrial internet has accelerated the long-predicted convergence of IT technologies and manufacturing, as companies step up efforts to embrace digitalization,"Zuo said in an earlier interview with China Daily.

The industrial internet refers to a network of combined, advanced machines with internet-connected sensors and big-data analytics, which is of great significance to boosting the productivity, efficiency and reliability of industrial production.

"But it also brings new cybersecurity challenges, which mainly come from two aspects - how to better protect industrial computers and servers, and how to secure industrial data as they flow across different platforms," Zuo added.

Qi An Xin was founded in 2014 by former employees of 360 Security Technology Inc, but in April, the former became an independent company, with 360 selling all of its stake.

According to Zuo, industrial computers, specifically industrial control computers and servers, connect the information infrastructure of enterprises and industrial control equipment. But these industrial computers tend to have a long working cycle, powered with old operating systems and hardware, resulting in a lot of security loopholes.

"How to fix these loopholes without interrupting industrial production is a big challenge. Unlike consumer applications, which can be updated whenever security loopholes are identified, industrial apps and computers have to follow a certain schedule to perform. Casually fixing or updating them will interrupt production and lead to big losses," Zuo added.

According to Zuo, years of knowledge about local industrial production procedures and manufacturing know-how is needed to offer cybersecurity services to industrial companies.

Also, industrial data flowing across different applications has become a trend. There is an urgent need to ensure that the full-cycle data flow is protected and Qi An Xin has advantages in solving the two challenges, Zuo said.

Qi An Xin announced in May that it had inked a strategic partnership with the State-owned China Electronics Corp, to further expand market presence.

Under the partnership China Electronics Corp has spent 3.73 billion yuan buying a 22.59 percent stake in Qi An Xin, becoming its second-largest shareholder.

Under the deal, the two sides will cooperate in technological innovation, resource integration and the construction of major projects, with rising concern for network security calling for deeper cooperation between governments, enterprises and institutes.

"The strategic opportunity for domestic security software and solutions has come," Zuo added.