CSOCs help fight cyber attacks
China’s network security market on the verge of a boom: analysts
Have you ever come across the unpleasant experience of your computer unexpectedly breaking down after you open a strange email or money in your e-wallet somehow disappearing after you received a peculiar phone call?
Most people surfing the internet have encountered cyber threats in an era of digital transformation. In our massively interconnected world, it’s inevitable that cyber attacks of various origins continue to increasingly infect our online world.
Wu Hanji, managing director of Thales, who is in charge of Critical Information Systems and Cybersecurity in Asia, told the Global Times that companies might lack security awareness and fail to comply with certain requirements when checking emails, browsing the internet and uploading reports.
“For companies under regulation, such as banks, utility firms and insurance firms, they need to fulfill regulatory requirements for compliance needs, which requires intensive resources and sufficient budget allocation,” Wu said.
Today, the number of organizations that have suffered cyber attacks has increased 10 percent year-on-year, Christian Rivierre, vice president of international development at Thales, told reporters at a press briefing on July 4.
To help enterprises combat the threat of cyber attacks, France-based Thales came up with Cybersecurity Operations Centers (CSOCs), which keep a watchful eye on their internet infrastructure and internal systems around the clock. The firm is already operating CSOCs in five countries and regions, namely Canada, France, China’s Hong Kong, the Netherlands and the UK.
Thales’ CSOCs are able to detect cyber threats in real time, analyze events and provide a basis for effective incident response and mitigation, while monitoring the infrastructure’s compliance against cyber security standards and regulations.
“Companies have typically deployed firewalls, intrusion detection systems, window servers and other security devices to detect malicious activities and security events,” Wu said.
“If a security incident occurs, the related activities will be recorded in the logs. Thales can monitor the logs through the CSOCs, where professional staff will examine and analyze the logs to determine if a security alert should be raised as an early warning for malicious activity.”
He noted that Thales offers cyber security assessment and evaluation consulting services to multinational corporations operating on the Chinese mainland as well as Chinese companies in Shenzhen, South China’s Guangdong Province, that wish to go global and meet recognized cyber security standards when expanding businesses beyond Chinese benefits.
Growing market
Analysts noted that as corporations and individuals increasingly attach importance to information and privacy security, the domestic network security market is on the verge of a boom.
A report released by CCID Consulting in March predicted that China’s network security market will reach 73.89 billion yuan ($11.07 billion) by 2020, an annual compound growth rate of 21.7 percent year-on-year.
Li Yi, a senior research fellow at the Internet Research Center under the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, said that absolute network security does not exist and the problem should be dealt with as a priority. “More emphasis should be attached to departments related to national security.”
To further improve national cyber security, the Ministry of Public Secu- rity issued a draft on graded protection of cyber security for public comment on June 27. The regulation classified five levels of cyber protection system based on the seriousness of threats, stating that without permission or authorization, internet operators must not collect data and personal information that is irrelevant to their services.
The draft encourages the adoption of technologies such as active defense, dependable computing and artificial intelligence to drive innovation in cyber security protection and to improve cyber security prevention capabilities.
China still lags behind in fighting cyber attacks due to its lack of core technologies in aspects like chips and operating systems, Li noted.
As the industry is still struggling from a talent drain, it’s crucial to nurture those with specialized skills, said Huang Mei, senior director of the security department of Alibaba, chinanews.com reported on Tuesday.
Educational programs for cyber security talent have been established but it takes a period as long as five years to fully nurture a qualified cyber security expert, she said.