[Epoch Times September 26, 2021](Epoch Times reporter Wang Xiang comprehensive report) Deutsche News Agency recently reported that the Federal Information Security Office (BSI) under the German Ministry of Interior has launched a security investigation on Chinese mobile phones such as Xiaomi and Huawei.
After the Lithuanian government issued a warning about the built-in information censorship function of Chinese-made smartphones, Germany followed suit and took action.
The National Digital Security Center of Lithuania previously stated that these mobile phone manufacturers theoretically have the possibility of blocking specific content on the mobile phone’s built-in browser. Although these Chinese-made mobile phones sold in the European market have not activated the relevant review function, they can still be activated by remote control in theory.
They found that the mobile phones sold by Xiaomi in Europe can identify keywords such as “Free Tibet”, “Long Live Taiwan Independence”, and “Democracy Movement” and block related content. Similar security vulnerabilities were also found on Huawei mobile phones that are also made in China.
According to a report on the German “Daily News” website (tagesschau.de), the specific mobile phone models involved include Huawei’s P40 5G model, Xiaomi’s Mi 10T 5G model and OnePlus’ OnePlus 8T 5G.
A spokesperson for the German Federal Office for Information Security said that there are no Chinese brands such as Xiaomi on the government agency’s official mobile phone purchase list, but the possibility that civil servants use privately purchased Xiaomi phones for official business cannot be ruled out.
In response to questions raised by Lithuania, a Xiaomi spokesperson said, “Xiaomi has never, and will not restrict or prevent any personal behavior of smartphone users, such as searching, calling, web browsing or using third-party communication software.” At the same time. , The company emphasized that Xiaomi fully respects and protects the legal rights of all users.
Rüdiger Trost, a security expert from the German branch of the Finnish information security company F-Secure, told Deutsche News Agency that the allegations made by the Lithuanian government should be taken seriously.
“I think that China is very likely to have the ability to directly manipulate data on domestic smartphones. I have no doubt that the Chinese (CPC) government is willing to use technical means to implement information censorship.” He said.
And another information security company Eset spokesman Thorsten Urbanski (Thorsten Urbanski) said that all Chinese-made smartphones are generally suspected of being monitored.
He believes that remote control of smart phones has been a huge security hazard since a few years ago. The possibility of using remote control to steal a large amount of data has long existed, and mobile phone users can also be monitored remotely. However, in most cases, this manipulation does not come from the mobile phone manufacturer.
Editor in charge: Li Yuan#
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