China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) on Friday unveiled draft proposals detailing its plans to tackle data security events in the country using a color-coded system.

The effort is designed to "improve the comprehensive response capacity for data security incidents, to ensure timely and effective control, mitigation and elimination of hazards and losses caused by data security incidents, to protect the lawful rights and interests of individuals and organizations, and to safeguard national security and public interests, the department said.

The 25-page document encompasses all incidents in which data has been illegally accessed, leaked, destroyed, or tampered with, categorized them into four hierarchical tiers based on the scope and the degree of harm caused -

• Red: Level I ("especially significant"), which applies to widespread shutdowns, substantial loss of business processing capability, interruptions arising due to serious anomalies lasting more than 24 hours, occurrence of major radio interference for more than 24 hours, economic losses 1 billion yuan, or affects the personal information of over 100 million people or sensitive personal information of more than 10 million people

• Orange: Level II ("significant"), which applies to shutdowns and operational interruptions lasting more than 12 hours, occurrence of major radio interference for more than 12 hours,, economic losses between 100 million yuan and 1 billion yuan, or affects the personal information of over 10 million people or sensitive personal information of more than 1 million people

• Yellow: Level III ("large"), which applies to operational interruptions lasting more than eight hours, occurrence of major radio interference for more than eight hours, economic losses between 50 million yuan and 100 million yuan, or affects the personal information of over 1 million people or sensitive personal information of more than 100,000 people

• Blue: Level IV ("general"), which applies to minor events that cause operational interruptions lasting less than eight hours, economic losses of less than 50 million yuan, or affects the personal information of less than 1 million people or sensitive personal information of less than 100,000 people

The new rules also require affected companies to make an assessment to determine the severity of the incident, and if deemed serious, report it immediately to the local industry supervision department without omitting or concealing any facts, or providing any false information.

"If the local industry regulatory department initially determines that it is a particularly major or major data security incident, it should report it to the Mechanism Office in accordance with the requirements of '10 minutes by phone and 30 minutes in writing' after discovering the incident," the draft rules state.

Based on the response level activated – Red or Orange – the Mechanism Office is expected to report the matter to the MIIT. The draft rules are open for public comments until January 15, 2024.