News from General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of China is that AQSIQ and the Certification and Accreditation Administration of the People's Republic of China have jointly issued a notice asking that 13 types of information security products under eight categories undergo a mandatory certification.

The 13 kinds of information security products include firewall software, security routers and anti-spam products related to border security, communications security, identity identification, click control, data security, basic platforms, content security, evaluation reviews and application security.

The notice says that from May 1, 2009, all information security products belonging to the above list should pass a certification, or they must not be sold, imported or used in any operations in China.

The establishment and implementation of this compulsive certification system is expected to play an active role in protecting Chinese national security, economic safety and social stability when such crimes as online theft, online attacks, spam and spreading of harmful content are continuing to rise.