Chapter 43: Heading to Jiangcheng

Sunday, Deng Yonghua's office.

"We are heading to Jiangcheng tomorrow. Since you've decided to go, let me give you a general overview of the project." Deng Yonghua took out a completely black laptop.

"This air-gapped laptop is prepared for you. This trip is merely a seminar for project establishment, so the classification level isn't extremely high, but all project-related materials cannot be connected to the internet. Whenever you need to write something down later, you'll need to use this offline machine."

Saying this, he opened the laptop: "This project is spearheaded by an academician, but right now it is only in the initiation stage, primarily overseen by the Dean of the School of Cyber Science and Engineering at Huazhong University of Science and Technology.

With the explosive growth of Internet of Things technologies nowadays, massive numbers of IoT devices have become emerging vulnerabilities and attack entry points in cyberspace.

However, different industries and manufacturers adopt different standards. For instance, the industrial sector uses the OPC UA standard, the Internet of Vehicles focuses on C-V2X technology, and the operating systems between various smart home brands also exhibit significant differences in their underlying technical architectures and ecosystem compatibility.

This has led to severe security risks in a vast number of devices, such as default weak passwords, lack of firmware update mechanisms, unencrypted communications, and difficulties in patching security vulnerabilities.

Large-scale attack events such as the Mirai botnet have fully demonstrated the catastrophic consequences of losing control over IoT device security, which is absolutely unacceptable to the state.

Therefore, what we are going to do this time is to formulate an underlying standard compatible with multiple industries—a foundational security standard system framework—to carve out a moat for our country's IoT sector!"

As he spoke, Deng Yonghua clicked open a folder: "This is the project proposal we wrote during our last meeting. There is quite a lot of content, but you don't need to read all of it.

The project is divided into five tasks in total. I am in charge of Task Two: Research on IoT Device Communication Protocols and Data Security Standards.

This mainly involves formulating basic security protocol requirements for communication between devices, as well as between devices and the cloud or apps, and defining encryption and integrity protection for data during storage and transmission on the device side.

We are not the only ones on this task team; our primary responsibility lies in theoretical breakthroughs, while specific implementation will depend on the cooperating operating vendors."

He paused, then continued: "It sounds very impressive, but in reality, I feel this is quite difficult to achieve. Just looking at our task alone, the technological breakthrough is not trivial.

Building upon such a diverse protocol stack to define a set of universal standards is already immensely difficult, and making it meet the stringent security requirements of industrial control fields makes it even harder."

Zhou Yun took the notebook and glanced through it casually.

Deng Yonghua looked at him with a smile: "How is it? This project is still quite meaningful, right?"

"Very meaningful!"

Simply put, this project is about acting as a rule-maker. Once successful, a unified set of standards will apply to all IoT devices nationwide, and the impact will undoubtedly be immense.

Is this what a state-level project looks like?

"But Teacher, I don't know much about cybersecurity. I probably won't be of much help, right?"

"It doesn't matter if you don't understand; you can learn slowly. Moreover, bringing you along doesn't mean you will actually be directly responsible for a part of the task—the main work will definitely still fall on me.

Bringing you along is primarily to let you see what a real state-level project is like, and by the way, to let you meet big shots in the field.

Didn't you say the work you've been doing lately lacks meaning? You can take this opportunity to think it over carefully. Plus, nowadays, almost every field needs to touch upon AI.

Although you don't know much about cybersecurity, I think you are far more capable in the AI field than some professors in the school."

Deng Yonghua held Zhou Yun in extremely high regard, so he was doing his utmost to pave the way for him, and this project presented an excellent opportunity.

"I understand."

"Then you can look over the materials here first." He pointed to a chair nearby. "Just sit here."

On Monday, Deng Yonghua took Zhou Yun to Jiangcheng.

Ever since the project proposal was shown to him, Zhou Yun had been studying related content continuously, reading relevant literature even on the airplane.

As the plane was about to land, Deng Yonghua patted Zhou Yun on the shoulder.

"The seminar starts tomorrow. You can walk around and explore tonight. You haven't been to Jiangcheng before, have you?"

"No, but I'd like to review the relevant materials a bit more. If I get asked something later and can't answer at all, wouldn't that make you lose face?" Attending this kind of conference for the first time made Zhou Yun slightly nervous.

"You're overthinking it. Rest assured, if anyone gets asked, it will be me. You're just a student; everyone understands what it means when I bring you along." Deng Yonghua shook his head with an amused smile.

He certainly wasn't the only one bringing students to participate in projects, and everyone knew full well what the purpose was. "There will probably be quite a few teachers bringing students this time. You can chat and interact with them more; it might be helpful to you."

After getting off the plane, the two took a taxi in advance to the scheduled hotel.

"Tomorrow we are required to arrive at the school by nine o'clock. The hotel isn't far from the campus, so shall we set off at eight-thirty?"

"Alright, I'll head up first." When the elevator reached the fifth floor, Zhou Yun pulled his suitcase and found his room number.

"Click." Upon entering, Zhou Yun casually tossed his backpack onto the table, set his suitcase aside, and threw himself flat onto the large bed.

" Ah! So comfortable—" He buried his entire face in the quilt, letting out a muffled murmur.

For some reason, every time he got off a plane, he felt an extraordinary sense of exhaustion.

The early morning air in Jiangcheng carried a hint of damp coolness as sunlight filtered through the roadside trees onto the gates of Huazhong University of Science and Technology.

Just as Deng Yonghua and Zhou Yun arrived near the school gate with their backpacks, they saw a group of people gathered in twos and threes chatting casually, evidently also waiting for someone.

"Professor Li, President Wang, President Zhang! You all arrived quite early." Deng Yonghua's voice carried a familiar warmth.

"Ah, Professor Deng is here! Long time no see, what have you been busy with lately?"

"Just keeping busy with random things. A whole bunch of matters to handle right at the start of the semester."

"And this is?" The slightly plump President Wang glanced smilingly at Zhou Yun standing beside Deng Yonghua.

"This is my student, Zhou Yun."

Zhou Yun quickly greeted them respectfully: "Hello, Professor Li; hello, President Wang; hello, President Zhang."

After brief pleasantries, the group paid him no further attention, instead pulling Deng Yonghua into conversation. Since Zhou Yun didn't know anyone, he could only stand quietly to the side, listening to them talk.

"What's the situation now? Should we head over ourselves, or will someone come to pick us up?"

"I asked just now; they said a car would come to pick us up. It should be soon, right? It's almost nine o'clock." Professor Li raised his hand to check his watch.

"Here they come." President Zhang pointed to a vehicle not far away.