Govt plans software guideline to protect data

China is mulling over a five-year software security guideline to safeguard the State secrets and data in key industries, a senior official from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said on Wednesday.

The government will focus on beefing up the safety of software in financial sector and applications used by government departments and State-owned enterprises this year, said Chen Wei, director of the software bureau at the ministry.

Chen did not disclose details of the proposed guideline.

Increasing the ability to keep key information safe is one of the most important tasks the ministry is working on.

The move may prove a new hurdle for overseas vendors as the government- backed projects tend to buy local software due to security concerns.

China is one of the largest software manufacturers in the world. Chen said the annual revenue for the industry is expected to exceed 10 trillion yuan ($1.61 trillion) by around 2021.

The total revenue of the country's software industry hit 3.7 trillion yuan in last year, a 20 percent jump compared to 2013, data from the ministry showed.