China's leading industrial and commercial city of Shanghai, which aims to become an international information center, has just formed an evaluation and certification body as part of the city's effort to enhance information security.

The Shanghai Information Security Evaluation and Certification Center will provide services to neighboring Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Anhui, Jiangsu and Shandong provinces as well as the metropolis of Shanghai in east China.

Sources with the municipal government said that Shanghai is to set aside 10 to 15 percent of its computer network development funds for network security purposes in the years to come.

Measures will be taken to tighten quality control on products that are used to protect the networks from hackers.

To date, 86 percent of Shanghai's information networks have had security products mounted, but a recent survey showed a lack of security knowledge among network professionals, with less than two percent of them knowing how to protect their networks from intruders.