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Guest profile: Ye Feng, CEO of Geer Software. In 2022, he was awarded the honorary title of Shanghai Jing'an Craftsman, and in 2023, he was awarded the "Golden Wisdom Award" for China's Cybersecurity and Information Industry. In addition, he invented an authentication and key negotiation method for multi-server architecture and successfully obtained an invention patent.

Keypoints：

1. With the rapid development of the digital economy, data has become an important production factor. As a key means to ensure data security, the demand for cryptographic technology has increased accordingly.

2. The application of new-generation information technologies such as cloud computing, big data, and artificial intelligence has put forward new security requirements for existing network security measures.

3. The development of quantum computing poses a threat to traditional cryptography, and quantum-resistant cryptography (PQC) technology has become the key to protecting information security.

With the rapid development of the digital economy, data has become an increasingly important asset for enterprises and countries. Data security technology, especially the application of cryptographic technology, has become the key to protecting this asset.

With the rise of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and quantum computing, what changes will the data security industry undergo? What opportunities and challenges will the cryptographic industry face? Recently, China Business News interviewed Ye Feng, general manager of cryptographic security company Geer Software (603232.SH). In his view, with the promulgation and implementation of laws and regulations such as the "Cryptography Law" and the "Regulations on the Administration of Commercial Cryptography", my country's cryptographic industry is accelerating its development.

Policy promotion + demand release, the crypto industry is accelerating its development

"Against the background of the rapid development of the digital economy, data has become an important production factor, and security is highly valued. As a key means to ensure data security, the demand for cryptographic technology has increased accordingly. At the same time, cryptographic technology, with its unique advantage of being able to run through the entire life cycle of data circulation, has become an indispensable key foundation for ensuring data circulation transactions, bringing new business growth to the cryptographic industry." Ye Feng said.

At the policy level, the "Cryptography Law" was promulgated in 2019 to standardize the domestic cryptography industry standards and development framework; the "Three Guarantees and One Evaluation" policy package was introduced in 2022; the "Commercial Cryptography Management Regulations" were officially implemented in July 2023, and the importance of commercial cryptography was further enhanced.

Ye Feng said that under the background of the continuous improvement of the construction of information and innovation infrastructure, the growth rate of traditional information security has begun to slow down in recent years. The formal implementation of the "Cryptography Law" in 2020 increased the proportion of cryptographic security in information and innovation construction. The national cryptography transformation and evaluation have promoted the accelerated development of the cryptography industry.

The rapid development of the cryptography industry is driven by policies based on national information security considerations on the one hand, and by the increase in demand brought about by new technological breakthroughs on the other.

The application of new-generation information technologies such as cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things in all walks of life has brought about a large number of new businesses and new applications, and is gradually changing the traditional information technology paths and industrial models. The existing network security means can no longer meet the security requirements of new technologies and new applications.

Ye Feng said that on the one hand, artificial intelligence can bring about productivity improvements and technological upgrades in the network information security industry, but it also needs to be combined with the network information security industry to solve security issues in the implementation of artificial intelligence technology.

It is reported that the cryptography industry used to be a relatively niche segment, and its traditional customers were mainly key units such as the party and government, finance, military, public security and finance, all of which have sufficient data flow and high data value. As my country vigorously develops the digital economy, data has become the core resource and driving force of the digital economy era. The demand for data security in all walks of life has reached an unprecedented high, and the application of cryptography technology has begun to expand to more industries, including emerging fields such as the Internet, Internet of Things, electricity, and medical care.

"So far, the proportion of cryptographic technology in the network security and informatization infrastructure that has been built across the country is not very large, and the cryptographic industry still has a lot of room for industrial development," said Ye Feng.

my country's commercial encryption industry started late, and it is expected to usher in rapid growth in the next few years driven by policies and data factor markets. According to CCID statistics, the scale of my country's commercial encryption industry has continued to expand since 2021, and the overall scale of the industry has shown an upward trend. In 2023, the scale of the domestic commercial encryption industry is expected to be 93.75 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 32% compared with 2022.

Develop anti-quantum cryptography to cope with the impact of quantum computing

Quantum technology is considered to be the next key technology that will impact the world. Quantum computing will bring a leap in computing power, but will also pose a huge threat to traditional cryptography.

Traditional public key cryptography systems, such as RSA and ECC (elliptic curve cryptography), rely on the computational difficulty of integer factorization and discrete logarithm problems, which take an extremely long time to crack and are very safe under existing computing power. However, in the era of quantum computing, the currently commonly used public key cryptography algorithms (such as SM2, ECC, etc.) will no longer be safe and can be cracked by quantum computers in a short time, which poses a huge challenge to network security and national security.

In order to cope with the huge threat brought by quantum computing, PQC (Post-Quantum Cryptography) technology is particularly important. As a cryptographic algorithm designed for quantum threats, PQC can resist attacks from quantum computers and protect information security.

"Quantum computing has had a huge impact on cryptography, especially in the past two years. On the one hand, this is because the development speed of quantum computing technology has far exceeded expectations. On the other hand, it is because of the forward security issue of sensitive information. A lot of encrypted sensitive information is circulating on the Internet, which means that criminals can steal encrypted data now and store it, and then decrypt it after quantum computing technology matures." Ye Feng said.

With the accelerated development of quantum computing technology, the migration of quantum-resistant cryptography is urgent, and the upgrade and replacement of cryptography is a very complex and huge project. Ye Feng said that from a national perspective, the first thing to do to promote the use of PQC technology for information security protection is standardization, from algorithm collection and evaluation to the formulation of a technical implementation roadmap and transition strategy, so as to smoothly transition from traditional cryptographic algorithms to quantum-resistant cryptographic algorithms; for cryptographic companies, they can refer to international standards to prepare relevant technical layouts in advance, carry out pilot work in key areas of important systems, realize the integration of existing systems and protocols with quantum-resistant cryptographic algorithms, and assist and promote the country to establish standards for quantum-resistant cryptographic algorithms.

Gelsoft is very optimistic about the application prospects of anti-quantum cryptography technology. It has jointly established a cryptography technology and engineering laboratory with Fudan University to carry out algorithm development, standard setting and industrial promotion in the field of anti-quantum. At present, the laboratory has CNTR key technologies and related patents. In order to transform the laboratory's technological achievements into products and develop core products for anti-quantum cryptography, in early 2023, Gelsoft established Shanghai ICP Post-Quantum Technology Co., Ltd. to engage in anti-quantum cryptography technology research, technical services and product development. At present, Gelsoft's product system has fully completed the upgrade of anti-quantum cryptography technology and fully supports CNTR technology.

In general, in response to the challenges and opportunities brought by new technologies such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing, Ye Feng said that Gel Software, on the one hand, reserves key technologies through internal research and incubation, and on the other hand, cooperates with universities and research institutes through external mergers and acquisitions to deploy cutting-edge technologies in advance, and relies on Gel Software's rich experience and resources in the field of network information security to productize related technologies.