Country enhances security checks for govt websites

China has strengthened security checks of government websites, hoping to clean up those that are not up to standard by the end of 2015, officials of the nation's top Internet watchdog said on Monday.

Security checks of government websites is a key task for the country, as their data and information are sensitive and relate to State security, said Zhao Zeliang, director of the Cybersecurity Coordination Bureau at the Cyberspace Administration of China.

"Government departments should pool more resources to speed up the security of their websites. It's also their duty to guide social websites to enhance their online security, and be their model," said Zhao at the opening ceremony of the first China Cybersecurity Week, which runs from Monday to Nov 30.

He added that his administration regularly organizes technology training for government officials, teaching them about cybersecurity and how to effectively prevent online attacks.

Yang Chunyan, deputy director of the bureau, said they have begun a campaign to verify whether all "official" websites are actually operated by government departments.

"We will make a unified logo for qualified government websites and ask them to put it on their homepages to help residents quickly identify whether a website they visit is operated by a government department or not," Yang said.

The unified logo will be issued on Tuesday, she said, hoping it will be uploaded on the verified sites in 2015.

The National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team and Coordination Center said that 2,430 government websites were hacked in 2013, up by 34.9 percent year-on-year.

The hacking could cause information leaks and threaten State security, according to the center's report.

In Sunday's security report by Qihoo 360, China's largest security software provider, 2,424 of 17,875 Web security loopholes were found on government websites.

"In today's big data era, there is no clear boundary between government websites and outside networks, or in other words, it is time for the authorities to highlight cybersecurity and boost their website security protection," said Qi Xiangdong, president of Qihoo 360.

But some government authorities still worry about whether services and products provided by enterprises are safe, which Li Chenggang finds unnecessary.

Li, chairman of Westone Information Industry, a State-owned security company in Sichuan province, said website protection and a security platform cannot depend only on some officials with computer training.

Government departments should make full use of the technology, talent and experience of big security companies.

caoying@chinadaily.com.cn