As home to the world's largest internet population, with over 940 million internet users as of 2021, China has a thriving social media landscape with a wide range of apps and platforms that businesses can use to promote themselves. As you’re surely aware, China’s internet ecosystem is special and unique, and this is especially so in the news publishing and social media spaces.

As a website owner, cybersecurity should be a top priority. Hackers and cybercriminals are constantly finding new ways to access and exploit websites, and if you're not careful, your site and your users could be at risk.

To help protect your website and your users, here are the top 10 cybersecurity best practices for website owners.

Anybody can "make" a website —  but to make a great one you need to relentlessy hunt down all errors, issues and optimizations that are possible to output the best possible end product. We check the websites we develop from top to bottom for every conceivable issue, from Cybersecurity to Accessibility. A lot of the tools and checks we use you can use, too, to review your own websites and projects to double check and make sure your developers didn't miss anything.

The Chinese internet audience and environment is distinct from any other.

The language and its syntax is obviously unique, but there are many special requirements and peculiarities in the country that require attention to detail and often custom coding and attention. Some of these include:

1. ICP License - This is a registration process and evidence of such that needs to be shown at the bottom of every page of a website that is hosted on servers in China. We've been helping clients get their ICP licenses for years.
2. Servers - To best serve China it isn't always required to use a server in China, but it is if you need to:
   • Collect data from local Chinese individuals or businesses
   • Collect online payments from local Chinese
3. Local Assets - Due to some web services, tools and platforms being less accessible in China it's necessary to use workarounds utilizing China-focused alternatives
4. Style and UX - Chinese users have different stylistic, layout UX preference differences. Thye are ok with much higher information density layouts on desktops for example, and there are UX pattern differences when using mobile devices.
5. Communication Platforms - Chinese users have all their own social media and communication platforms, but it's not just a difference in which platform but also a difference in protocols, as in China there is a stronger preference for using a phone number as the personal identifier compared to using email addresses, for example, or for using QR codes over links, and so on.

Cybersecurity can be super expensive for SME’s as the IT skills needed require professionals with many years of experience, intensive training and certifications, and very often pricey software, tools and subscriptions.

The quandary is that companies can’t afford not to do more for cybersecurity, as the increase in cyber attacks such as ransomware, data breaches and more tear across the business landscape worldwide. Cybersecurity can no longer be an afterthought for SME’s - they must get it right today. 

What’s a company to do? Well, some expenditure is unavoidable, but like in many areas of IT open source solutions if selected wisely can be a big money saver. Trained cybersecurity professionals are still needed, but many of the tools we detail below can help small businesses bridge the gap between not paying enough attention to cybersecurity and employing sufficient security for their risk profiles.