Industry Leaders Call for Systemic Overhaul to Address Growing Asymmetric Threats
Artificial intelligence is fundamentally transforming cybersecurity at an unprecedented pace, creating both formidable challenges and innovative solutions. At the 2025 Beijing Cybersecurity Conference main forum held on June 5, experts from government, academia, and industry reached consensus that while AI dramatically enhances the efficiency and destructive potential of cyber attacks, it simultaneously provides new momentum for building intelligent defense systems.
Escalating Threats Demand Systemic Innovation
Zhao Zhiguo, Executive Deputy Director of the Expert Advisory Committee at the China Internet Association, framed AI as the strategic technology at the forefront of global technological competition. “AI has introduced unprecedented opportunities and challenges for cybersecurity development,” Zhao noted, highlighting how AI exacerbates asymmetric cyber warfare – enabling attackers to launch larger-scale, more precise strikes while defense technologies struggle to keep pace.
“AI represents both a critical domain in global cybersecurity competition and the opening move in controlling cyberspace dominance,” Zhao emphasized. “We must address complex risks with systematic thinking and construct more flexible, intelligent, and collaborative security architectures.”
Zeng Yi, President of the Beijing Institute for Advanced Study on AI Security and Governance, presented sobering research findings: attack success rates against major global AI models show an upward trend, with Chinese models ranking in the middle of the pack with 5-6% vulnerability rates – significantly higher than the 0.7% rate of top international models.
However, Zeng maintained an optimistic outlook: “High-level AI capability and security can coexist – we can have our cake and eat it too. Security and governance represent core AI competencies that will accelerate robust AI development and application.”
Industry Pioneers Build Multi-Layered Defenses
Facing these challenges, leading enterprises are implementing intelligent defense strategies. Chen Yang, Vice President of Baidu and Director of the AI Security Committee at the Beijing AI Industry Alliance, addressed the balance between enterprise efficiency and security. “Many security issues stem from vulnerabilities created during R&D,” Chen explained. “Baidu’s approach embeds security through technical means and AI at design, coding, and construction phases – preventing problems where they’re most likely to occur.”
Zhang Zhengping, Rotating President of Seres Group, positioned security as competitive advantage: “Intelligent connected new energy vehicles represent the core engine of new quality productive forces. High-quality development requires high-level security construction.” Seres has partnered with cybersecurity leader Qi An Xin to create a tripartite security ecosystem connecting automakers, security providers, and end-users, collaboratively advancing technical standards for intelligent connected vehicle security.
Systemic Approach Redefines Cybersecurity Paradigm
“System” emerged as the conference’s central theme in addressing technological evolution and complex threats. Qi An Xin Chairman Qi Xiangdong stressed the primacy of systematic approaches: “Cybersecurity has reached a point requiring breakthrough. Systematic operations and construction have become crucial forces for achieving this.”
Qi critiqued current industry limitations: “Under long-term passive orientations of ‘make me do it, require me to do it, I’ll make do,’ security construction has fallen into patchwork habits of ‘fill what’s missing, low-price bidding’ – resulting in porous, ineffective protections.” He proposed three pathways for systemic transformation: reshaping data aggregation models, security operation models, and ecosystem collaboration models.
Sun Weimin, Chief Engineer of the Cyberspace Administration of China, concurred: “The era of single-point defense has ended.” Citing Winter Olympics cybersecurity as example, Sun advocated integrated defense systems combining telecom operators and critical infrastructure enterprises. “Cybersecurity is a systems engineering project requiring system thinking and coordinated operations among all stakeholders to build national joint defense architecture.”
The Road Ahead: From Fragmented to Integrated Security
The conference revealed several critical insights about AI’s cybersecurity impact:
1. Asymmetric Warfare Escalation: AI-powered attacks outpace defensive capabilities, requiring quantum leaps in protection systems.
2. Chinese Model Vulnerabilities: While improving, domestic AI models show higher susceptibility than international leaders, signaling need for focused advancement.
3. Security by Design: Leading firms now embed security throughout development lifecycles rather than treating it as add-on feature.
4. Ecosystem Collaboration: Industry recognizes that effective security requires cross-sector partnerships and shared standards.
Strategic Recommendations for Future Development
Conference discussions yielded several strategic recommendations:
1. Accelerate Indigenous Innovation: Bridge the gap in original algorithms and dataset quality through focused R&D investment.
2. Develop Comprehensive Standards: Establish unified security frameworks for emerging technologies like intelligent connected vehicles.
3. Foster Public-Private Partnerships: Enhance collaboration between government agencies, enterprises, and research institutions.
4. Implement Security Education: Build workforce capabilities through specialized training programs addressing AI security challenges.
Conclusion: Building Endogenous Security for Digital China
As emphasized throughout the conference, the cybersecurity paradigm is undergoing fundamental reconstruction – shifting from product-level optimization to system integration, from passive defense to active immunity. Only when technological breakthroughs resonate with institutional safeguards can “endogenous security” truly fortify the foundation of Digital China. The path forward requires nothing less than a systemic revolution in how we conceptualize and implement cybersecurity in the AI era.
The 2025 Beijing Cybersecurity Conference has set the stage for this transformation, bringing together diverse stakeholders to chart a course toward more resilient, intelligent, and collaborative security ecosystems capable of meeting tomorrow’s challenges today.
Related topics:
