BEIJING - China's internet security sector has maintained continuous growth in recent years, said a report released by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT).

The market scale of the sector went up 19.2 percent year-on-year to 51.1 billion yuan ($7.22 billion) in 2018, and is expected to reach 63.1 billion yuan this year, said the report.

China's environment for the development of internet security has been constantly optimized, with the number of enterprises in the sector nearing 2,900, said Wang Zhiqin, deputy director of the CAICT.

In the meantime, security products and service systems for the industrial internet have been initially established, and the research and development of 5G network security is underway, according to Wang.