Lithuania's Defense Ministry recommended that consumers avoid buying Chinese mobile phones and advised people to throw away the ones they have now after a government report found the devices had built-in censorship capabilities.
Flagship phones sold in Europe by China's smartphone giant Xiaomi Corp (1810.HK) have a built-in ability to detect and censor terms such as "Free Tibet", "Long live Taiwan independence" or "democracy movement", Lithuania's state-run cybersecurity body said on Tuesday.
The capability in Xiaomi's Mi 10T 5G phone software had been turned off for the "European Union region", but can be turned on remotely at any time, the Defence Ministry's National Cyber Security Centre said in the report.
"Our recommendation is to not buy new Chinese phones, and to get rid of those already purchased as fast as reasonably possible," Defence Deputy Minister Margiris Abukevicius told reporters in introducing the report.
The fact that this capability exists at all in devices being sold where local governments do not explicitly require such functionality is an enormous concern and absolutely warrants this response.
The fact that this capability exists at all in devices being sold where local governments do not explicitly require such functionality is an enormous concern and absolutely warrants this response.
Also it’s turned off outside China. I think the concern is they could turn it on remotely and add whatever they like to the list. You might compare with what Apple wants to do for photos, but for...
Also it’s turned off outside China. I think the concern is they could turn it on remotely and add whatever they like to the list.
You might compare with what Apple wants to do for photos, but for a company that’s trusted less.
It seems like “how do you trust an electronics vendor” is going to become a bigger issue. It’s been a problem since automatic security updates became routine, but now it’s getting more political.
From the article:
The fact that this capability exists at all in devices being sold where local governments do not explicitly require such functionality is an enormous concern and absolutely warrants this response.
Also it’s turned off outside China. I think the concern is they could turn it on remotely and add whatever they like to the list.
You might compare with what Apple wants to do for photos, but for a company that’s trusted less.
It seems like “how do you trust an electronics vendor” is going to become a bigger issue. It’s been a problem since automatic security updates became routine, but now it’s getting more political.