Lithuanian company warns in opposition to use of Chinese-made telephones

Lithuanian cybersecurity consultants are urging the nation’s authorities companies to desert using Chinese smartphone manufacturers after an investigation recognized safety vulnerabilities and censorship issues with sure units.

Lithuania’s National Cyber Security Center mentioned it discovered 4 main cybersecurity dangers for units made by Huawei and Xiaomi, together with two regarding pre-installed apps and one involving private information leakage, and warned in opposition to utilizing these two manufacturers.

Xiaomi telephones, which comprise a content-filtering characteristic for 449 key phrases or teams of key phrases in Chinese characters, additionally carry the chance of doable restrictions on freedom of expression, in accordance with the Lithuanian investigation.

The cybersecurity heart warned the operate could possibly be activated at any time and mentioned it didn’t rule out the likelihood that phrases written in Latin characters could possibly be added. According to the Lithuanian report, apps obtain up to date lists of censored phrases and phrases and are able to blocking them.

The phrases embody “Free Tibet,” “Voice of America,” “Democratic Movement” and “Long Live Taiwan Independence.” Although the content-filtering characteristic was disabled and no censorship was carried out on the telephones the Lithuanian heart inspected, the middle warned the operate could possibly be activated at any time.

A Huawei spokesperson in Lithuania denied the allegations.

Xiaomi denied its telephones could possibly be used to censor or posed privateness dangers, saying they complied with the European Union’s stringent privateness rules.

“Xiaomi’s devices do not censor communications to or from its users,” the corporate mentioned in an announcement. “Xiaomi has never and will never restrict or block any personal behaviors of our smartphone users, such as searching, calling, web browsing or the use of third-party communication software. Xiaomi fully respects and protects the legal rights of all users.”

The cybersecurity heart, which is a Defense Ministry company, additionally investigated telephones made by one other Chinese firm, OnePlus, however discovered no issues.

“We strongly recommend that state and public institutions not use those devices and plan to initiate legislation which regulates acquiring certain devices for the ministries and various state agencies,” Deputy Defense Minister Margiris Abukevicius mentioned Wednesday.

More than 200 public authorities have bought such telephones, and over 4,500 telephones are in use, “which, in our opinion, increases the risks,” Abukevicius mentioned. He did not specify the makes of all of the telephones.

The heart’s investigation, launched Tuesday, was performed “to ensure the safe use of 5G mobile devices sold in our country and the software they contain,” he mentioned.

Also, strange “people should also know what’s inside these phones, about the certain software and consider safety before making their decisions,” the minister mentioned.

Beijing-based Xiaomi, identified for its value-for-money units, grew to become the world’s No. 2 smartphone maker by gross sales this yr, trailing solely Samsung. The firm was placed on a U.S. Defense Department blacklist in the previous few days of the Trump administration, which accused it of hyperlinks to China’s navy. It was later eliminated after suing the U.S. authorities and denies having any hyperlinks with China’s People’s Liberation Army.

The transfer comes amid tensions between Lithuania and China.

Earlier this month, Lithuania recalled its ambassador to China following the Baltic nation’s resolution in July to permit Taiwan to open an workplace in its capital underneath its personal identify. In August, China recalled its ambassador to Lithuania and instructed the Baltic nation to “immediately rectify its wrong decision.”

China says Taiwan is a part of its territory and does not have the proper to diplomatic recognition, though the island maintains casual ties with all main nations via commerce workplaces, together with within the United States and Japan. Chinese stress has diminished Taiwan’s formal diplomatic allies to simply 15.

Taiwan and Lithuania agreed in July that the workplace within the capital, Vilnius, set to open this fall, will bear the identify Taiwan relatively than Chinese Taipei—a time period typically utilized in different international locations so as to not offend Beijing. On Wednesday, Lithuania mentioned it was sending one other 236,000 COVID-19 vaccines to Taiwan.

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