Economic methods should be used when addressing the issue of information security, which has long been regarded as simply a technological issue, said an expert on information technology Tuesday.
Prof. He Dequan, an academic from the Chinese Academy of Engineering, made this call when addressing the International Conference on Globalization of Information, which ended Tuesday.
He said economic methods and technical means should be used together to tighten web information security.
A "headache" around the world, information security brings the same challenges to all countries, that is, the cost of maintaining web security is rapidly increasing, whereas the cost of breaking this security is on the decline, he said, calling the situation "grim".
Statistics show that up to US$20 billion is spent around the world on information security each year.
He proposed establishing a system linking responsibility and compensation and adding an incentive mechanism to encourage an increase in information security.
It is necessary to integrate the risks in information security with the economic risks and such issues should be dealt with from an economic perspective, he added.
(Xinhua News Agency August 28, 2002)
