National May 1st Labor Medal recipient Yang Lin has been honored for his dedication to securing the digital infrastructure of the power grid. The 28-year-old expert from the Information Operation and Maintenance Team of the State Grid Yuncheng Power Supply Company's Information and Communication Company was recently named on the 2026 National May 1st Labor Medal commendation list released by the All-China Federation of Trade Unions.
Prior to this accolade, Yang had already garnered numerous honors including the individual first prize in the National Cybersecurity Workers' Vocational Skills Competition, the "Sanjin Technical Expert" title, and the "Shanxi Provincial Model Worker" award. For years, he has steadfastly guarded the front lines of network security protection.
Over the past five years, Yang has evolved from a novice in the workplace to a key young defender of the power grid's cybersecurity. Through relentless commitment and technological innovation, he has worked to solidify the "digital defense line" of the power system.
**Diligent Study and Practice: From Novice to Backbone**
After graduating with a master's degree in 2021, Yang, who had studied computer science, joined the State Grid Yuncheng Power Supply Company with confidence in his professional skills. However, upon starting his role in information operation and maintenance, he was immediately confronted with the intricate network topology of the power grid, highly specialized communication equipment, and the logical troubleshooting questions posed casually by his team leader. He found himself at a loss for words, his face flushed with embarrassment.
"That moment made me acutely aware that in the field of power grid network security, I was just a beginner starting from scratch," Yang admitted frankly.
The gap in his role did not diminish his fighting spirit; instead, it ignited a resilient determination to succeed. The unreserved guidance from senior colleagues and their professional reverence, demonstrated through both instruction and example, solidified his belief in "lifelong learning and establishing oneself through practical work." He set a rule for himself: to study three hours more each day than others, gradually closing the gap.
For over a thousand days and nights, the equipment rooms and offices of the State Grid Yuncheng Power Supply Company became Yang's second home. He has seen the dim streetlights of Hedong East Street in the early morning hours and kept watch over the perpetually lit indicator lights on equipment in communication rooms throughout the night. The code that others might find dull and obscure is his key to ensuring network stability; the daunting challenges of network attack and defense within the industry are the trials he tackles with relentless enthusiasm. Through two years of diligent study and practice, he accumulated practical experience equivalent to what typically takes five to seven years.
**Technological Innovation: Tackling Difficulties to Enhance Efficiency**
Deep immersion in frontline work allows for the precise identification of pain points. During routine operations and maintenance, Yang identified a longstanding common bottleneck plaguing the industry: within the power grid system, there is a multitude of switch device batches and a variety of brands, with no unified standard for the underlying configuration logic and instruction sets across different manufacturers. Frontline maintenance personnel not only spent excessive time comparing devices one by one and manually inputting commands, resulting in extremely low inspection efficiency, but this process was also highly prone to system vulnerabilities caused by human operational errors.
Confronted with this critical challenge, Yang proactively led his team in systematically梳理 (sorting out) the configuration logic and protocol architecture of hundreds of mainstream network devices within the grid. They meticulously refined code line by line and conducted repeated tests for compatibility. Ultimately, he spearheaded the development of a set of automated operation and maintenance software compatible with multi-vendor, multi-model devices, and completed the writing of highly adaptable multi-protocol automated control scripts.
The implementation of this system has completely standardized the operation and maintenance protocols for switches across the entire system, achieving a fully automated closed-loop process for device status polling, batch configuration deployment, and log compliance checks. Verified in real-world scenarios, the overall operational efficiency has improved by over 90%. Manual operations that previously required tens of minutes or longer have been compressed to seconds, fundamentally eliminating operational risks stemming from human error.
**Courageously Embracing the Mission: Guarding the Defense Line to Ensure Safety**
As a young backbone member on the State Grid's cybersecurity front, Yang is consistently at the forefront of cybersecurity保障 (safeguarding) efforts. During multiple national重大 (major) event cybersecurity protection missions, facing tests involving massive asset接入 (access) and extremely complex network environments, he completed core保障 (safeguard) tasks with outstanding results of "zero missed reports, zero false alarms," earning him three separate commendations from the State Grid Corporation headquarters.
Leveraging his精湛 (exquisite) technical prowess, Yang has been dispatched multiple times by the State Grid Corporation to provincial companies in Fujian, Zhejiang, and elsewhere to conduct in-depth investigations of network security vulnerabilities. Cumulatively, he has discovered and guided the remediation of over 100 system-level high-risk vulnerabilities, more than ten of which were identified as national-level high-risk vulnerabilities. The timely patching of these critical vulnerabilities has effectively mitigated potential systemic risks and comprehensively enhanced the overall protective capability of the power system's network security.
**Passing on the Torch: Fostering Unity and Nurturing New Talent**
In Yang's view, all personal achievements are inseparable from the support and传承 (passing down of knowledge) within the team. From the hands-on guidance senior colleagues provided when he first joined, teaching him vulnerability discovery logic and tackling technical bottlenecks together, to the "passing on, helping, and guiding" spirit within the Shanxi Electric Power网络安全 (network security) team, all have formed a solid foundation for his journey forward.
One experience he will never forget is the "desperate rescue" before the 2024 8th National Workers' Vocational Skills Competition. The day before the competition, his specialized contest laptop suddenly suffered a system crash. With no internet access at the venue and a特殊 (special) environment configuration, the computer was the "battlefield weapon" for cybersecurity competitors. Two years of preparation seemed to vanish in an instant. Just as he was接近 (nearing) despair, the entire Shanxi Electric Power network security team assembled overnight. Together, they故障排查 (troubleshot the issue), shared configuration files, and worked through the night to repair and debug the system, ultimately successfully restoring the entire competition environment half an hour before the event began.
In the end, Yang secured second place nationally in the Network and Information Security Administrator track, achieving a historic breakthrough for both Shanxi Province and the State Grid Corporation in this competition and刷新 (setting a new) best record for the company's participation. Standing on the podium, his eyes grew moist—this honor belonged to his并肩作战 (comrades-in-arms) and to the spirit passed down through generations of power grid workers.
Yang consistently keeps team growth and talent cultivation in mind, sharing his practical experience without reservation. He actively participates in information security penetration technology training organized by the State Grid Shanxi Electric Power Company, delivering lectures to colleagues based on real attack-and-defense cases and practical security scenarios. He has累计 (cumulatively) trained over 1,500 employees across the provincial power system.
Using competition as practice and to promote learning is常态 (the norm) for Yang's self-improvement. From the bronze award in the Network Data Security track of the 2023 Digital China Innovation Competition, to the individual first prize in the National Cybersecurity Workers' Vocational Skills Competition, the individual first place in the Shanxi Provincial Electric Power System Workers' Vocational Skills Competition, and the individual second place in the 8th National Workers' Vocational Skills Competition—each weighty honor documents his professional journey of being扎根基层 (rooted at the grassroots) and striving for progress with determination.
"The battlefield of network security changes in an instant; we must maintain a state of constant learning," says this post-90s craftsman, his words steady and forceful. From a workplace novice to a National May 1st Labor Medal recipient, Yang Lin has provided his own answer through five years of steadfast dedication. With youth and实干 (practical action), he诠释 (interprets) the responsibility and commitment of workers in the new era,彰显 (demonstrating) the true essence of craftsmanship among young artisans.
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