A man stands in a main hall at the Internet Security Conference 2018 in Beijing on Tuesday. [Photo/Agencies]

China needs to ramp up efforts to further promote the construction of its cybersecurity system and safeguard the country's network security, said senior industry regulators.

More efforts should be made to increase investment in core network security technology research and development, make breakthroughs in key technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence, build an industrial internet security system, actively develop the cybersecurity industry, and build a cybersecurity technology management system covering telecommunications, the internet, and the industrial internet, according to Liang Bin, deputy director of the network security administration of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

"With the blossoming of cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence and other new technologies, the internet has become integral to our daily lives and has a tremendous impact on the global economy and security patterns," Liang said at a recent cybersecurity summit in Beijing. "Meanwhile, security risks are posing an increasing threat to the whole of society."

In recent years, a surge of internet attacks across the world has highlighted the role of cybersecurity. Last year, the WannaCry ransomware virus affected hundreds of thousands of computers in more than 150 countries and regions, including China.