The strict implementation of China's cybersecurity law and regulations will help safeguard the country's cyberspace, though more online attacks are likely to occur amid the increasing use of the internet in industrial operations, a report said on Wednesday.

The report, released by the National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team/Coordination Center of China, said as the Made in China 2025 initiative makes significant progress, the country's industries are embracing digital technologies to upgrade plants, but this will also bring new cyberthreats.

The center said it had detected more than 1,000 loopholes in China's industrial control systems as of 2016, with 173 of them discovered last year alone.

Qi Xiangdong, chairman of 360 Business Security Group, said compared with consumer internet applications such as e-commerce, the industrial internet is far more complex and more vulnerable to sophisticated cyberattacks.

"Once the industrial internet is attacked by 'bad guys', it not only compromises personal information, it also harms the whole enterprise," Qi said.

The report revealed 1,117 loopholes in smart gadgets such as drones, web-cameras and internet-connected home appliances in 2016.

"Smart devices are small, therefore there is not much protective software in them. When the security problems are found, it will be very difficult to solve them through upgrades," said Yan Hanbing, director of CNCERT's operation department.

"More efforts are needed to ensure cybersecurity when we prepare for the internet of things era," Yan added.

China's first Cybersecurity Law, which takes effect in June, will play an important role in clarifying the responsibilities of governments, enterprises and individuals in cyberspace and measures on how to deal with cyber emergencies, the report said.

Liu Bo, an official at the Cyberspace Administration of China, said the law and cybersecurity regulations will help prevent online attacks and efforts are ongoing to develop a supervision mechanism on internet goods and services.

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