China needs more cyber security experts

China suffers a shortfall of 700,000 online security experts and the shortage is set to double to 1.4 million by 2020, which will bring on cyber security threats targeting national security, online fraud and privacy leakage, the country’s biggest online security firm 360 said on Wednesday.

The threats have become more serious due to development of artificial intelligence and cloud computing which requires huge volume of data and transmission, industry officials said.

There are only 30,000 online security experts in China now but the real demand is for over 700,000 experts. As only 10 percent of colleges and universities have set up specific cyber security classes, the shortage is expected to grow to 1.4 million by 2020, industry insiders said.

White-hat hackers, who test and expose system loopholes to improve online security, will play a more important role, said 360, which has set up China's biggest vulnerability response platform Butian.

“With Butian, we want to turn the industry from black to white,” said Bai Jian, who heads the non-profit Butian platform.