The gradual professionalism of China's bedroom hackers traces the country's rise as an economic and technological force, and its sometimes conflicted position in the escalating global data security arms race.

To try and tackle this, dozens of cybersecurity companies are now cropping up across China according to industry observers, populated by young techies with bona fide security skills and work experience at firms like Alibaba, Tencent Holdings Ltd and Baidu Inc.Д¬hina is hoping that eventually domestic cybersecurity groups will provide most of its companies with defences against hacking, rather than them relying on foreign firms like Symantec, Kaspersky and EMC Corp's RSA.

In May, China's National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team, a non-profit agency, said it had recorded 9,068 instances of data leaks in 2014, three times as many as in 2013, reflecting the 'grim challenges' of Chinese cybersecurity, according to the official Xinhua news agency. 'I'd been messing around in the field in my early years, but luckily it just so happens now that there's this trend of China taking information security very seriously,' Zhang said on June 18, from his office in a high-tech development in eastern Shanghai.Д¬hina's President Xi Jinping has made cybersecurity a national priority as the country starts to feel the impact of rapid economic growth occurring without a corresponding development in data protection. Now, after a stint working at internet bluechip Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, he is the chief technology officer of a Shanghai-based cybersecurity firm which owns, a site offering rewards for vulnerability discoveries, and internet security media site. Zhang Tianqi, a 23-year old Beijinger, cut his chops in high school trying to infiltrate foreign websites, skirting domestic law by probing for vulnerabilities on overseas gaming networks. China, long accused by the United States of rampant cyber aggression, may be synonymous with hacking exploits these days, but that doesn't mean every Chinese hacker is out to pilfer and destroy.ДЄs Chinese companies grapple with a sharp increase in the number of cyberattacks, many hackers are finding it increasingly lucrative to go above board and join the country's nascent cybersecurity industry.

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