[ISN] U.S.-China Internet forum highlights need to step up online security

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-12/11/content_12631544.htm

By Lin Zhi 
www.chinaview.cn  
2009-12-11

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 10 (Xinhua) -- The third annual U.S.-China Internet 
Industry Forum concluded here Thursday with delegates calling for more 
efforts to step up online security.
    
An important part of network security was to ensure the security of 
online information, said Cai Mingzhao, former deputy director of China's 
State Council Information Office and an adviser to the Internet Society 
of China, which co-hosted the one-and-a-half-day forum with Microsoft 
Corporation.
    
Pornography, fraud, spam, online attacks and computer viruses were 
serious threats to information security and were impairing the public's 
confidence in the Internet, he said in a keynote speech on Thursday.
    
"Under such circumstances, it is not enough to emphasize the free flow 
of information alone. Information security should be put in a prominent 
position," Cai told an audience of more than 100 government officials, 
business leaders, academics and other representatives from both 
countries.
    
"If network information security is not guaranteed, the information flow 
will become irregular. If illegal and harmful information are allowed to 
flow rampantly without checks, it will do great harm to the real 
society," he said.
    
Cai said the first priority of ensuring online security should be 
protecting adolescents, as teenagers had become the largest online group 
and whose growth was increasingly influenced by the Internet.
    
Each country has its own unique circumstances, differing from each other 
in Internet penetration, economic and social development, cultural 
traditions and laws, Cai said, adding that ensuring online security 
should fully respect the cultural diversity and concerns of all 
countries.
    
"Therefore, Internet security around the world is unable to be measured 
by a unified standard. It is impossible to regulate security with a 
single law or manage it in a single pattern," Cai said.
    
In his speech, Robert Hormats, under secretary from the U.S. Department 
of State, believed the U.S. and China should strengthen cooperation to 
jointly address network security risks.
  
The U.S.-China Internet Industry Forum was launched in 2007 and has been 
held previously in Seattle of the United States and Shanghai of China.


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