Cybersecurity debate heats up

Cybersecurity and international cooperation were the most heatedly discussed topics during the second day of the World Internet Conference, held in Wuzhen, Zhejiang province.

Almost 20 Internet specialists from various countries gave speeches at the online security forum on Thursday, shared their opinions about how to handle cyber threats and global internet cooperation.

Huang Chengqing, a participant from China's network emergency watchdog, said they have cooperated on protecting the Internet with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and built relationship with 59 countries and 127 organizations.

"We've reached an agreement on online security cooperation with 17 worldwide associations," said Huang, director-general of the National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team and Coordination Center.

Over the past two years, the center dealt with more than 15,000 cross-bordered online security cases. However, Huang says cybersecurity is still a serious problem.

The number of Chinese computers that were affected by Trojan Horse viruses reached 190,000 from January to June this year, according to statistics provided by Huang.

"The United States controlled more than 2.6 million computers during this period," said Huang. "The US is still the number one country where online attacks on China originate."

Under this circumstance, the international cooperation against online threats should be moved forward, he added.

James Andrew Lewis, senior director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, echoed Huang's statements, saying the governance of cybersecurity needs agreements among governments.

The governance of the Internet has become a political problem, which requires every nation to enforce its laws and make efforts to seek consensus, Lewis added.