The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA), an industry group focusing on cloud computing security, will bring its summit to the Beijing Cyber Security Conference (BCSC) in August.
Jim Reavis, chief executive officer of the CSA, said the summit, which will be held outside the United States for the first time, will bring global knowledge sharing.
"The CSA summit will provide a knowledge transfer of best security practices from governments, businesses and academia from around the world," said Reavis in a recent interview with Xinhua.
The CSA CEO said that cybersecurity was going through a transition from the traditional perimeter defenses of fixed computing assets to a virtual, software-defined world that requires agile deployment of security on demand.
Meanwhile, with the exponential increase in computers technologies like artificial intelligence, 5G, Internet of Things and the Blockchain, the biggest challenge is to figure out how the industry can "scale up" cybersecurity to address all the different cases.
The CSA found that most of the security incidents were because of basic problems with configuration, credential theft and insecure programming practices.
"Education and awareness are important solutions," Reavis noted.
Speaking of no quick and easy fix for cybersecurity issues, he said there would always be malicious attackers and cybercrime. "For young people interested in hacking and unsure about their career path, I would urge them to take a 'White Hat' path and work to help us secure the global compute infrastructure rather than attacking it."
White Hat is an Internet slang referring to an ethical computer hacker, or a computer security expert, who specializes in penetration testing and in other testing methodologies to ensure the security of an organization's information systems.
"Not only is it the right thing to do, but we desperately need more experts," he added.
The CSA summit is known for being the venue that the White House selected to announce the U.S. federal government's cloud computing strategy in 2011.
This March, the CSA signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the BCSC to bring its summit to Beijing.
Talking about the upcoming summit, Reavis said along with global knowledge sharing, the CSA summit in Beijing would explore leading edge technology that both creates risks and security solutions, and the audience will be able to measure their security programs with some of the best in the world.
According to Reavis, the CSA had participation from Chinese enterprises inside of the organization, literally from the beginning. The CSA philosophy is to maximize cybersecurity by wise partnerships and being open to collaboration with all cultures and countries.
The three-day BCSC, which will kick off on Aug. 21, is expected to draw together more than 30,000 participants across the world.
