Days after the US had filed hacking charges against five Chinese military officers, China announced that it would implement tighter security measures for technology firms.

The State Internet Information Office (SIIO) in China said new ground rules would be established to protect the country's national interests. This would ensure that no illegal interference and pilferage would occur in IT systems.

Like Us on Facebook

Information technology firms supplying to China would be the most affected by this new directive, a staff at the National Research Center for Information Technology Security said.

IT-related communications and energy commodities are just a couple of the categories identified that would have to comply with this procedure.

IBM, Microsoft and Cisco Systems, all currently supplying IT commodities to China, will carry the brunt of this new directive, state-run publication, China Daily said.

Duncan Clark of BDA China speculates that China may require transparency with regard to secret data encryption codes. He adds that this has issue has many a time been a topic of contention between both sides.

However, non-compliance to the new regulations might prevent entry into China's market.

The announcement came just three days after the US court had filed injunction charges against five Chinese military officials for allegedly stealing information from US companies.

The timing of this announcement may be perceived as some form of retaliation on China's part, analysts opined.

After the indictment, an unidentified official from the SIIO said that unless the US government retracts its accusations and continues with the indictment, China will have no choice but to retaliate, The New York Times reports.

But Clark believes that the timing of the announcement is most probably coincidental. China has been increasingly concerned about internet security and protection since allegations made by Edward Snowden on U.S. hacking of Hong Kong and Chinese computer systems.

TagsTech News, World, Edward Snowden, State Internet Information Office, Cisco, BDA China, hack, hacking, internet security