Nǐ Hǎo, cyber-chief!

Ni Hao folks!

Last Friday we had the pleasure of receiving none other than Xu Lin, China’s chief of cybersecurity and internet policy. Naturally, it was time to roll out the red carpet.

We’ve been working in China now for more than 15 years. In that time we’ve come a long way: from literally nothing (zero market presence) to a well-recognized brand (Ka-Ba-Si-G; the whole naming thing in China is a whole other story – on for another day) and good contacts in high places. We meet with Chinese regulators regularly (funny, but I’m sure those two words are unrelated:), more often than not in Beijing, but sometimes also in Wuzhen. Well it was Moscow’s turn this time to host one of our meets.

It was our pleasure showing our esteemed guests around our HQ, including our R&D department and anti-malware research. We then told them our take on modern-day cyberthreats and how best to defend against them, and answered all their questions.

Later on, a wonderful formal dinner and exchange of pressies:

So what can I say?

China is a large, mighty and great country with a leading economy, and it can’t afford not to pay special attention to… the ‘digital challenges of our times’. (Yes, that’s very formal wording, but both China and Russia do formalities better than most – so why not?!) We’re good friends with China, and we’re always ready to strengthen even further that friendship. Also, China for me is one of my top destinations for business trips – and vacation trips, and it looks like I’ll be visiting even more frequently in the future. No complaints there; and there’s the added bonus: we’ll get more business with China ).

And, as I like to say after visits like these: 工作 (Gōngzuò) – meaning ‘work’. All right folks, that’s all for today, back to gōngzuò, if you do gōngzuò, that is ).