What’s new: China’s internet industry regulator has ordered the cloud units of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Baidu Inc. to step up efforts in preventing online and telecommunication fraud.
The regulator said the two cloud platforms were allowing access to a large number of scam websites, and ordered them to fulfil their responsibilities to network and information security, according to a notice published on Tuesday by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on WeChat (link in Chinese). The talks were held by the ministry’s cybersecurity bureau and the country’s public security bureau.
Both companies were told to take corrective measures in accordance to the Cybersecurity Law, or risk facing severe punishment, the notice said. The firms agreed to further strengthen the management of website access, domain name registration, and information services, it added.
The background: China has been ramping up efforts to crack down on cybercrimes. Last October, a national campaign was launched to clean up criminal syndicates, and eliminate SIM and bank cards used for fraudulent purposes.
Within the year, a total of 27,000 gangs were busted and 45,000 suspects were picked up, according to state-run Xinhua News Agency (link in Chinese) last month.
Contact reporter Kelsey Cheng (kelseycheng@caixin.com) and editor Bertrand Teo (bertrandteo@caixin.com)
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