We’re here in Shanghai, considered by many as “the Paris of the East”, where the stage is set for our next chapter of the Country Council Chronicles. More than 120 representatives from more than 60 U.S. corporations or NGOs doing business in China and the region have convened at the Portman Ritz Carlton to discuss various aspects of the cyber challenges of doing business here. Joining us as well were Regional Security Officers from various cities and other countries in the region, including our host for the day, RSO Shanghai, Bill Gannon. Robert Griffiths, U.S. Consul General Shanghai, welcomed the participants and congratulated OSAC on its more than 25 years of public/private collaboration.

From there the day was replete with many informative and thought provoking presentations. One of the more interesting insights of the day occurred when it was pointed out that China is second only to the U.S. in the number of cyber attacks its population experiences and the economic loss attributed to those attacks ($23 billion)…not too surprising, when considered on the heels of data points that described China’s population as one of the largest concentration of cyber users in the world of whom many were described as knowing little if anything of how to protect themselves while on the internet.

The delegation concluded its time in Shanghai with an evening cruise down the Huangpu River with members of the Consulate staff, where starkly contrasted on one side of its banks were the neon lights of ultra-modern of Pudong--with its iconic Oriental Pearl Tower--and on the other, the warm amber lights of the Bund, characterized by "colonial architectural relics" that once housed numerous banks and trading houses from the United Kingdom, France, the United States, Italy, Russia, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands and Belgium…reminding us that the roots of global commerce run deep here in Shanghai.
 
(ARSO/I Shanghai Brian Blackman, Ford, McClurg, Hartung, Snyder, RSO Shanghai Bill Gannon, RSO Shenyang Pat Newell, ARSO Shanghai Pete Kapoukakis, RSO Shanghai OMS Christina Hlosek)

You’re invited to stay “On the Track of OSAC” as we continue on to Seoul tomorrow. Continue look for exact dates and times of Country Council meetings at www.OSAC.gov .