China issues draft contingency plan for data security incide...

BEIJING, Dec 15 -- China today proposed a four-tier classification to help it respond to data security incidents, highlighting Beijing's concern with large-scale data leaks and hacking within its borders. The contingency plan comes amid heightened geopolitical tensions with the United States and its allies and follows an incident last year when a hacker claimed to have procured a trove of personal information on one billion Chinese from the Shanghai police. China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) published a detailed draft plan laying out how local governments and companies should assess and respond to incidents. The plan, which is currently soliciting opinions from the public, proposes a four-tier, colour-coded system depending on the degree of harm inflicted upon national security, a company's online and information network, or the running of the economy. Acc...