European Chamber Hosts 2019 Cybersecurity Conference

2019-02-22 | Beijing

The European Chamber successfully delivered the 2019 edition of its annual Cybersecurity Conference, where a distinguished array of government body representatives, standards drafters, lawyers, security experts and industry representatives jointly helped members examine the status quo of cybersecurity rule-making and law enforcement.

Clas Neumann, Chair of European Chamber Cybersecurity Sub-working Group, SAP Senior Vice President & Head of Global SAP Labs Network & Head of Fast Growth Market Strategy Group delivered a keynote speech and explored cybersecurity from a business perspective. He recognised the need for multinationals to be prepared for the Cybersecurity Law at all levels, including in terms of technology and processes, while being pragmatic in their compliance approach. He expressed the European business community's hope to have in place a regulatory framework that is conducive to the development of a globalised digital economy, with reduced regulatory risks and compliance costs.

Chen Jihong, Partner at Zhonglun Law Firm gave an in-depth analysis of cybersecurity rule-making and law enforcement activities. He reviewed recent developments relating to the law's key implementing rules, how the law had been enforced, as well as the impact of international developments on China. He also predicted that in 2019, China’s cross-border data regulatory framework would be unveiled, the Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Regulation promulgated, the Classified Cybersecurity Protection Scheme (CCPS) in place, law enforcement efforts intensified, and data compliance as a concept widely accepted by the business community.

Chen Luping, Chief Engineer of China Software Testing Centre (CSTC) presented on the key requirements and processes of the CCPS, as well as on its differences with the previous Classified Information Security Scheme. She saw the CCPS as regulators' efforts to keep pace with technology advancements, and the CSTC capable of playing an important role in the implementation of this scheme.

Zhang Yuegong, CEO of Beijing Sansec Technology Development Company, Ltd. and the holder of a number of prestigious official titles shared his insights on how cryptography empowers cybersecurity. He started with an overview of existing cybersecurity and cryptography policies and regulations, before taking a deep dive into cryptographic regulatory and standards frameworks, and into cryptography’s role in in emerging technologies such as blockchain, trusted computing and artificial intelligence and in sectors such as financial services and Internet of Things.

Jim Fitzsimmons, Director at Control Risks addressed the topic of cryptography from a different perspective. In addition to regulatory trends, he also walked companies through more practical issues such as what products/services can be used, where can such technology be used and how, and whether does this change risk. For him, a variety of factors such as interoperability, maintenance, security and licensing need to be jointly taken into consideration before a decision is made.

He Yanzhe, Chief Inspector of Cybersecurity Review Department, Cybersecurity Evaluation Centre, China Electronics Standardisation Institute delivered a presentation on latest developments regarding the Personal Information Security Specification. He explained the novelties introduced by the revised standard – such as the requirements on prohibiting forced collection of personal information, personalised display and opt-out, aggregation and fusion of personal information collected for different services/functions, recording personal information processing activities, and management of access by third parties – in light of the recent government crack-down on APPs illegally collecting and using personal information.

After the presentations, Yuan Li, Security Consultant at the CSTC, Paul El Khoury, Head of Product Security at SAP Labs China and Adan Zhan, Deputy Director for Data Science and Innovation at China Enterprise ICT Solutions Limited joined Chen Jihong and He Yanzhe for a panel discussion on the Cybersecurity Law’s overall implementation, providing concrete answers to the difficulties that member face in their compliance efforts.

The Conference was attended by about 150 participants, and was moderated by Barbara Li, Vice Chair of European Chamber Cybersecurity Sub-working Group and Bruce Fu, Vice Chair of its ICT Working Group.