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China is emerging as a front runner in driving information security initiatives due to a number of significant changes in the business environment, finds PricewaterhouseCoopers' 2012 Global State of Information Security Survey. 

The study notes that there has been an increased emphasis on the protection of confidential corporate data and intellectual properties owned by Chinese companies, as well as tougher regulatory measures and an increased focus on R&D.

This year, a significant percentage of respondents across industries agreed that one of the most dangerous cyber threats is the Advanced Persistent Threat (APT).

APT usually refers to a group of highly skilled individuals with the capability, resources and intent to persistently and effectively target a specific entity through a cyber attack, which is different from individuals, such as an individual hacker, who are not usually referred to as an APT as they rarely have the resources to be both advanced and persistent even if they are intent on gaining access to, or attacking, a specific target.

"This year, significant percentages (83%) of China respondents from various industries agree that APT drives their organisation's security spending, yet only 28% say their company has a security policy that addresses APT," says Samuel Sinn, a partner in PwC China's Risk & Controls Solutions practice based in Beijing. 

Although China respondents lead their global counterparts, many are not adequately prepared to combat this new threat.

According to the survey, the rise of cloud computing has improved but also complicated the security landscape. 

More than four out of ten global respondents and six out of 10 China respondents report that their organisation uses some kind of cloud computing services - 69% for software-as-a-service, 47% for infrastructure-as-a-service and 33% for platform-as-a-service. 

For several years, Asia (including China), has been firing up its investments in security technology.  The number of Asian and Chinese respondents who expect security funding to increase over the next 12 months has leapt to 74% and 83% respectively this year - an expectation rate far higher than any other region. 

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