Cybersecurity, $26b market by year-end

The market size of China's cybersecurity industry is forecast to exceed 170 billion yuan ($25.8 billion) in 2020, twice the size of 2015, as the nation's companies have made strides in research and development on products and services to safeguard internet information security, officials and experts said on Monday.

Liu Liehong, vice-minister of industry and information technology, said the new round of technological revolution is deepening the integration of digital and real economies, which boosts new business models while bringing new cybersecurity challenges.

"More efforts are needed to promote the high-quality development of the cybersecurity industry and to implement a number of major projects such as the innovative development of the industrial internet," Liu said at a cybersecurity forum in Beijing on Monday.

Currently, China has more than 3,000 enterprises engaged in cybersecurity-related business, covering network security equipment, services, software and system integration.

The synergy between the upstream and downstream of the industry chain has been further enhanced, according to data from China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, a government think tank.

Zhao Zhiguo, head of cybersecurity management bureau under the ministry, said more than 300 enterprises have moved into national cybersecurity industrial parks in Beijing and Changsha, Hunan province.

"More efforts will be made to tackle technological bottlenecks in the cybersecurity sector," Zhao said.

Zhao said cybersecurity companies have become investor favorites, with 2019 seeing more than 40 investment and financing deals focused on cybersecurity companies in China.

Qi Xiangdong, chairman of security company Qi-Anxin Technology Group Inc, said the industrial internet helps companies boost efficiency in production and corporate management, but it also brings new cybersecurity challenges.

"Cybersecurity is the top challenge for the industrial internet, which is entering a fast lane in China, and more efforts are needed to better solve the problem," Qi said.

With the in-depth integration of 5G and industrial systems, severe security challenges will face the industrial internet. Traditionally, industrial enterprises have had a relatively closed production environment. But with 5G and the industrial internet, such changes make industries more vulnerable to cyberattacks, Qi said.

The comments come as China is working hard to lay out a primary cybersecurity system for the industrial internet by the end of 2020, with at least 20 innovative products and solutions developed as pilot projects to safeguard information security for areas such as automotive, aerospace and energy.

It is part of a plan to build a sound and complete cybersecurity system by 2025 to promote the development of the industrial internet in the country.