The new job position of chief data officer, or CDO, has been emerging in Hangzhou and Shaoxing in East China's Zhejiang province, local media reported on Aug 24.

In May, the two cities encouraged government departments and State-owned enterprises to set up CDOs who can play a key role supporting the province's ongoing digital reform.

Accordingly, a CDO shall be responsible for the data resources in their department and expand the application scenarios of these resources.

Hangzhou's Binjiang district has launched an integrated public platform storing over 2.2 billion pieces of valuable data. "Our server has 410 terabytes in storage and offers access to 522 accounts," said Zhou Hao, the district's CDO. "Currently, this data is accessed over 40,000 times every day."

Zhou Hao (first from left) and colleagues discuss upgrading digital applications. [Photo/zjol.com.cn]

Zhou said that digital reform is challenged by the threats of illegal access, data theft, and even cyber-attacks. "Every day we check the servers and firewalls' status. Departments that have access are also required to change their passwords frequently," he said.

"The data is collected at our bureau and shared to other bureaus in the district," said Wen Binzhi, CDO of the human resources and social security bureau of Keqiao district in Shaoxing. "We have broken the data barriers between 20 departments and have greatly streamlined administrative procedures."

Wen added that his department has over 255 million pieces of data. A confidentiality mechanism has been carried out to ensure their safety, while another 2 million yuan ($308,600) will be spent to upgrade the servers' security.

Wen Binzhi (second from right) guides colleagues in improving system security. [Photo/zjol.com.cn]