The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that it has completed the testing of the two allegedly questionable mobile phones manufactured by Chinese smartphone vendor Xiaomi Corp, adding that it is scheduled to present a certification mechanism for information security by the end of next year.
The alleged security loopholes with the Chinese smartphones were exposed by the Finnish security company F-Secure Corp, which found that the smartphones’ built-in text-messaging application, MIUI, can send users’ information to the company’s servers in Beijing without their approval.
On Tuesday, Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) said the government would spend three months studying whether it should ban the use of the Xiaomi smartphones in light of the potential security risks.
He added that government departments have already been prohibited from using text-messaging application Line and told to replace it with Juiker, a similar application developed by Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) to lower the information security risks.
Lo Chin-hsien (羅金賢), director of the commission’s Resources and Technologies Department, said the commission had entrusted the nation’s laboratories with the task of testing the two Xiaomi smartphones mentioned in the F-Secure report, adding the department needs to study the test results before submitting them to the NCC commissioners for deliberation.
Lo said the test was to determine whether the smartphones could indeed send users’ personal information to Xiaomi’s server in Bejing before the company upgraded its system and whether that would cease after the company upgraded it, as claimed by the Chinese mobile phone manufacturer.
Lo said that while the applications built into mobile phones will be tested by the commission, those downloaded via mobile phones by users will be supervised by the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Industrial Development Bureau.
Though the commission has a certification system for mobile phone interfaces, batteries and other specifications, he said it does not have one yet for information security.
“Mobile phone manufacturers are encouraged to have their information security certified by valid institutions,” he said. “We will list the names of these mobile phone markers and their certified products on our Web sites for consumers to consider.”
Lo said the information security test was not mandatory, adding that China is the only country in the world making such a test obligatory.
While Jiang said government officials are encouraged to use Juiker to communicate with colleagues, Minister of Transportation and Communications Yeh Kuang-shih (葉匡時) said he does not use the application because it does not hold a license for Tier-II Telecommunication Enterprises.
In response, NCC said the matter requires further investigation.
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