Students are learning how to identify and resolve vulnerabilities before they can be exploited. Cao Yin reports.

Participants work to solve problems during the 2021 China Cybersecurity Week in Beijing last month. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

As a schoolboy, Bai Zelong was an online games enthusiast. His main sense of achievement was derived from completing as many game levels as possible.

Today, as a member of Dubhe, a student cybersecurity team at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Bai has stood out in many contests across the country. His sense of achievement now revolves around discovering and preventing as many online vulnerabilities as he can.

Last month, the 21-year-old undergraduate and his teammates once again won first prize at a national cybersecurity competition, this time at an event in Beijing.

When asked, "Who was your first cybersecurity teacher?" Bai replied, "Online games."

About 10 years ago, he admired players who could complete games quickly "because their effortless victories looked so cool", he said. He added that it piqued his curiosity to figure out what allowed those players to finish games faster than anyone else.

After some investigation, he discovered that the secret of their success was a cheating program that helped improve their playing skills by tampering with the normal settings and rules of online games.

"In simple terms, such a cheating program is a kind of game modifier. People using it will win games more easily," Bai said.

Primary school students in Dongyang, Zhejiang province, learn about cybersecurity last month. (BAO KANGXUAN / XINHUA)

Interest drives studies

He initially looked for ready-made software, but after finding some programs that were riddled with viruses, he decided to study computer languages and create similar works himself.

"It was the first time I realized that online services and products had vulnerabilities that might be used by someone to achieve a goal or even pose risks to cybersecurity," Bai said.

As his interest in computers grew, his basic knowledge could not meet his needs.

So, with his parents' support, the native of Shiyan, Hubei province, attended a computer workshop during the summer vacation when he was in the second grade of middle school.

At the workshop, he learned how to make webpages and build network systems. "But what impressed me most was our teacher's master key that could unlock all the students' online accounts," he said. "Before that, I thought a password only corresponded to one account."

The master key aroused the young man's curiosity. After discovering that it was a systematic and professional field that required a deep understanding of computers and the internet and was far harder than writing programs to cheat at games, his motivation to learn was stirred once again.

Regarding his interest as the best driver for his studies, he chose computer science as his university major and joined the cybersecurity team to represent the school at relevant competitions.

In his sophomore year, he decided to change his major. He joined the university's School of Cyberspace Security, established in 2016.

"The frequent competitions made me realize that I was more interested in the security field. My greatest sense of achievement lay in digging out network vulnerabilities and fixing them," he said.

A general view of the 2021 China Cybersecurity Week event in Beijing. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Internet boundaries

Liu Pengju, 22, also switched his major, from information management to cybersecurity, after he had been studying at the university for a year.

However, unlike Bai, the postgraduate decided to focus on cybersecurity after watching the movie Who Am I? as a freshman. The film centered on the activities of a computer hacker group in Berlin, which was aiming for global fame.

Liu clearly remembers a scene in which the group attacked a building's network system, resulting in all the printers producing documents bearing the group's logo.

"I was shocked by the scene as I had never thought a computer program could be powerful enough to break into the infrastructure's information network. Meanwhile, I realized such computer skills couldn't be abused－that is, the internet also has boundaries－because the group was quickly exposed and hunted by cybercrime investigators after the attack," he said.

"At that time, my university offered lectures on cybersecurity, which not only demonstrated that the nation had attached greater importance to this field in recent years, but also told us that the demand for talent in the security industry had grown stronger. So, I changed my major," Liu said.

After his years of study, he has a deeper understanding of the reason the country pays such high attention to cybersecurity.

"Practical vulnerabilities are truly powerful, like those in the movie when destroying a system or even a network, but they're harder to discover and fix than I thought," he said.

Children attend a computer studies club held at a school in Chongqing in September. (SUN KAIFANG / FOR CHINA DAILY)

Becoming experts

Both Liu and Bai have expressed the desire to become cybersecurity experts when they leave university.

They say the more time they spend on security research, the faster they will be able to discover new vulnerabilities and beat those who would exploit such bugs to attack networks.

Zhang Qian, a 25-year-old who has overseen network security at a bank in Beijing for the past year, said, "While intensifying efforts in research, it is also essential for those who want to be cybersecurity specialists to improve their security defense skills and abilities by seeking online risks through frequent practice.

"Besides, it's also a must for cybersecurity professionals to follow the development of the industry they're engaged in because online attacks in different sectors, such as finance and electricity, are sometimes different," she said.

She compared an interest in cybersecurity with growing a tree, saying that greater knowledge of security defense skills and better analytical abilities regarding relevant industries are the fertilizers that nourish the tree, helping it to become taller and stronger.

Contact the writer at caoyin@chinadaily.com.cn