Do the United States and China need a cybersecurity hotline?
A Chinese man uses a computer at the press center of the 18th Communist Party Congress in Beijing, China. Ng Han Guan/AP
A red telephone for the Internet age, and four other ways digital security in the People's Republic could move ahead in 2013
New institutions/bureaucratic reform. There are rumors that there will be another round of bureaucratic reforms in the spring. Chinese analysts have pointed out that one of the great weaknesses in their defenses is that institutional oversight of cybersecurity is fragmented and ineffective, and there is a low degree of information-sharing between the government and industry. There have also been complaints that China lacks adequate strategic planning for information security. In the past, efforts at ministerial reform have been underwhelming, resulting in little more than shuffling around of titles. This CCID report, however, does make the interesting suggestion that China should set up an "information security agency" to better coordinate cyber strategy.
New threats. Chinese security specialists, like their counterparts in the rest of the world, are worried about the growth of malware targeting smartphones and other mobile devices. Mobile data traffic grew tenfold in 18 months in China, accounting for some 10 percent of total global Internet activity. This year China Mobile established the country's largest information security center in Beijing, and recently the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced that it would regulate the Chinese app market.