More than 200 government entities are together using 1,108 telecommunications devices from Chinese brands, posing a cybersecurity risk, a government report showed.
At the suggestion of the Legislative Yuan’s Internal Administration Committee last year, the Executive Yuan investigated 7,704 public institutions to see whether they were using or had procured telecoms equipment manufactured by Chinese companies.
They found that as of April 13, of the 3,837 public institutions that responded to their requests, 228 said they had been using equipment made by Chinese brands, including mobile phones, video cameras, drones and other Internet-related devices.
The report highlighted products from seven brands considered to pose a cybersecurity threat: Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology’s video cameras; Huawei Technologies’ smartphones, tablets and wireless routers; Da-Jiang Innovations Technology’s drones; TP-Link Technologies’ wireless routers and network switches; Oppo Mobile Telecommunications’ smartphones and mobile phones; Xiaomi’s smartphones, tablets and virtual reality equipment; and Dahua Technology’s video cameras.
Five ministries or agencies on the national level and 36 on the local level, as well as four schools, said that their staff used Huawei, Xiaomi and Oppo smartphones, it said.
Video cameras were mostly used for security purposes, with seven central and 20 local agencies, as well as 29 schools, saying that they used Hikvision or Dahua’s surveillance cameras and webcams, it said.
Respondents said that they used as many as 366 sets of video recording equipment produced by Hikvision, making it the most widely used Chinese brand among public institutions, the report said.
Most respondents said that they used drones for location scouting, while networking devices were mostly used for Internet access at small offices, it said.
A majority of respondents said that they opted to use Chinese brands for budget reasons, as the products were usually cheaper, but could still meet basic requirements, it said.
Executive Yuan spokesman Ting Yi-ming (丁怡銘) yesterday said that the Executive Yuan used HTC phones without Internet capabilities.
Public institutions should avoid using Chinese brands that pose data security risks, especially not for key or major telecom devices, Ting said, adding that government agencies across all levels must comply with the regulations.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lai Jui-lung (賴瑞隆) said that it is a severe “national security problem,” and the Executive Yuan should provide instructions and funds to help public institutions quickly replace Chinese equipment.
Requests alone are not enough, Lai said, adding that the government should establish or amend legislation to ban use of Chinese brands.
DPP Legislator Wang Mei-hui (王美惠) also said that the Government Procurement Act (政府採購法) should be amended to ban the public sector from purchasing Chinese telecoms equipment.
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