Releasing Security Technology Productivity: Building a New Security System for Digital‑Physical Fusion

On September 23, the 2022 21st Century Science and Technology Summit was held online, where scholars, experts, and entrepreneurs discussed the frontiers of Chinese technology development. Ant Group Vice President and Head of the Large‑Scale Security Business Group, Zhao Wenbiao, delivered a speech titled “Releasing Security Technology Productivity, Building a New Security System under Digital‑Physical Fusion.”

He argued that in the era of digital‑physical integration, security technology is no longer just the "keel" of digital development but also a "catalyst" that fuels the digital economy.

He highlighted the rapid growth of AI, cloud computing, and big data, and the resulting industry‑wide transformation, while also pointing out emerging challenges such as new risks, deepening digital‑divide, and data security vulnerabilities.

Four new security characteristics were identified:

Compliance‑driven: Security must meet increasingly strict regulatory requirements.

Large‑scale intelligence: AI‑enabled security provides high‑speed, low‑cost, and robust protection.

Human‑centric responsibility: Integrating humanities and psychology to improve user experience and promote responsible technology.

Ecosystem collaboration: Coordinated security across all parties, especially small‑and‑medium enterprises, is essential.

To address these needs, Ant Group introduced the IMAGE framework, consisting of five pillars:

I – Interactive Proactive Security: Shifts security from passive defense to proactive, user‑involved risk mitigation.

M – Multi‑Party Security: Uses multi‑party computation, blockchain, and cryptography to protect privacy while enabling collaborative value creation.

A – Adversarial Intelligence: Combines AI with security to build robust, large‑scale intelligent defenses.

G – Graph‑Based Security: Employs graph models to predict risk trends and intervene early.

E – Edge‑Cloud Coordinated Security: Balances risk control and privacy protection across endpoints and cloud services.

Ant Group has applied these concepts in practice:

Data security: Since 2016, the "YinYu" trusted privacy‑computing framework has been deployed in banking, healthcare, and insurance, preventing billions of high‑risk loans.

Technical security: The "Ant‑Jian" AI safety detection platform, built with the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology and Tsinghua University, ensures trustworthy AI deployment.

Business security: The next‑generation native security infrastructure provides real‑time monitoring, anti‑fraud, anti‑gambling, and content‑security solutions across ten scenarios.

Ecosystem security: Nine security labs, a national anti‑fraud alliance chain based on blockchain, and open‑source security projects foster collaboration with regulators, banks, telecoms, and universities.

In conclusion, Zhao emphasized that security technology is now both a foundational stone and a powerful accelerator for the digital economy, and Ant Group will continue to invest in security R&D, drive ecosystem cooperation, and support high‑quality, secure development of the real economy.