Online providers' help sought

Shared responsibility called for in terror fight

Online product and service providers are encouraged to join efforts to fight terrorism and assume more responsibility for cybersecurity, experts on security and anti-terrorism said on Wednesday.

Many terrorists take advantage of the Internet to organize terrorist activities, and their major recruitment target is young people, which causes cybersecurity to be an increasingly serious problem worldwide, said Chen Weixiong, deputy executive director of the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate of the United Nations Security Council.

"More than 100 countries, including China, have found that nearly 30,000 people participate in terrorism-related activities after being recruited online," Chen said during the Second World Internet Conference in Wuzhen, Zhejiang province.

Noting that the Internet has been the main platform for terrorists to spread extremism, he called on Web service operators and social media providers to focus on anti-terrorism efforts, and not just profits, by monitoring activity and assuming more responsibility for fighting terrorism.

"I'm happy to see that some Internet giants ... have made efforts against terrorism, and I hope more enterprises can be members of the anti-terrorism team," he said.

Additionally, it is urgent to come up with ways to help young people use the Internet properly, he said. "For example, we can select some celebrities, including basketball or soccer stars, to guide the youth, letting them not be affected" by terrorists' online activities, he added.

In recent years, the number and type of cybercrimes, including fraud, theft, hacking and gambling, have increased in China. In response to this increase, China public security authorities have taken tough measures to crack down on such crimes.

According to the Ministry of Public Security, 1.73 million cases of illegal online activity have been dealt with since the beginning of the year. Almost 300,000 people suspected of involvement in violating laws have been detained.

China is a major target of hackers, and the ministry has vowed that China will continue to crack down on illegal online activities such as hacking attacks.

Liu Xinyun, an official at the ministry's Cybersecurity and Protection Bureau, said the bureau handled 947 cases of hacking attacks and detained more than 2,700 suspects this year.

To improve the situation, Liu said the bureau set up a 24-hour reporting system to enable people to report online crimes and ask for help.

"We have set up a department to deal with online crimes and opened more than 200 labs for getting and analyzing digital evidence," Liu said, adding that the bureau has also trained its staff to make sure that they are better able to crack down on online crimes.

Contact the writer at caoyin@chinadaily.com.cn and zhaoxinying@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 12/17/2015 page21)