The National Communications Commission (NCC) is planning to establish a certification system for mobile phone security following reports that Chinese smartphone vendor Xiaomi automatically sends personal information to its servers in Bejing without first securing the consent of users.
A story published in a blog post of Finnish security company F-Secure Corp indicated that Xiaomi smatphones’ built-in text-messaging application, MIUI, can send users’ information to the company’s servers in Beijing without their approval.
Because of the loophole, the report said that the Chinese vendor can access users’ mobile phone number, the international mobile equipment identity (IMEI) code as well as the SIM card number.
The international mobile subscriber identity code would be exposed too if the user signs on to Xiaomi’s cloud service, the report said.
Similar to Apple Inc’s iMessage service, MIUI allows users to send text messages through the Internet rather than through telecoms’ networks.
The story was subsequently picked up by Taiwanese media outlets, with Xiaomi users in Taiwan reportedly topping 400,000. The Beijing-based smartphone vendor first denied the reports, but later apologized for the unauthorized data collection.
It added that the messaging system would only be activated on an “opt-in” basis and personal information would be encrypted and would not be stored on its servers.
The commission said it told the Chinese company to inspect all types of phones — not only the two mentioned in the F-Secure blog — that it sells in Taiwan and determine if they have the same issue.
“We have notified them that they should provide a written explanation of how they plan to address the issue,” said Lo Chin-hsien (羅金賢), director of the commission’s Resources and Technologies Department. “We will ask them to come in and answer questions if necessary.”
The commission is to meet with other mobile phone manufacturers soon to discuss how they address information security issues, Lo said.
He added that the Executive Yuan has determined that the applications built into mobile phones will be tested by the commission, while applications downloaded via mobile phones will be supervised by the Industrial Development Bureau.
While the commission has a certification system for mobile phone interfaces, batteries and other specifications, it does not have one yet for information security.
It is aiming to establish an information security mechanism by the end of next year, he said.
“Currently, there is no country in the world that demands that mobile phone manufacturers have national certifications for information security. We can only encourage mobile phone manufacturers to take such certification when it becomes available,” he said.
Lo said the mechanism would not only target mobile phones produced in China, but it would apply to other manufacturers as well.
The inspection equipment and data transmission system for new robotic dogs that Taipei is planning to use for sidewalk patrols were developed by a Taiwanese company, the city’s New Construction Office said today, dismissing concerns that the China-made robots could pose a security risk. The city is bringing in smart robotic dogs to help with sidewalk inspections, Taipei Deputy Mayor Lee Ssu-chuan (李四川) said on Facebook. Equipped with a panoramic surveillance system, the robots would be able to automatically flag problems and easily navigate narrow sidewalks, making inspections faster and more accurate, Lee said. By collecting more accurate data, they would help Taipei
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
TAKING STOCK: The USMC is rebuilding a once-abandoned airfield in Palau to support large-scale ground operations as China’s missile range grows, Naval News reported The US Marine Corps (USMC) is considering new sites for stockpiling equipment in the West Pacific to harden military supply chains and enhance mobility across the Indo-Pacific region, US-based Naval News reported on Saturday. The proposed sites in Palau — one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — and Australia would enable a “rapid standup of stored equipment within a year” of the program’s approval, the report said, citing documents published by the USMC last month. In Palau, the service is rebuilding a formerly abandoned World War II-era airfield and establishing ancillary structures to support large-scale ground operations “as China’s missile range and magazine
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to
RSS