China-made commercial drones might contain back doors and malware that transmit flight and video data to the government in China, an official said yesterday.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the senior official said that Chinese drones, widely used by farmers for crop dusting, pose a significant cybersecurity threat to users and the government.
Beijing has unrestricted access to private user data held by Chinese corporations, which are obligated to cooperate with the country’s national intelligence efforts under China’s National Intelligence Law, the official said.
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In Taipei, government agencies have taken steps to remove Chinese-manufactured devices and software from official use as President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has made cybersecurity a priority in her national security policy, the source said.
Security protocols were tightened to no longer allow middle and high-ranking officials to use Chinese-made electronics for work or personal use, they said.
The official spoke on the matter following a statement by the National Communications Commission (NCC) on Thursday that said Xiaomi Corp’s (小米) Mi 10T 5G smartphones have built-in censorship capabilities and can transmit user data to servers in Beijing.
The commission said that its Telecommunications Technology Center in October last year tested a model sold in Taiwan, after the Lithuanian National Cyber Security Center on Sep. 21 last year discovered the device’s censorship capabilities.
The official yesterday said that while Xiaomi disavowed security issues with its products by saying that the features did not appear in models sold in Taiwan and Europe, the claims were not supported by the NCC’s independent analysis, and its report raised troubling implications about Chinese electronics.
The ban on devices applies to government employees only and not private citizens, the source said, adding that the government could only advise the public against buying products with compromised security features.
PACIFIC OCEAN: Defense experts have warned that the ‘Shandong,’ China’s second largest aircraft carrier, poses a serious threat to eastern Taiwan’s defenses The drills conducted by the Chinese aircraft carrier Shandong in the Western Pacific last week were more aimed at showcasing China’s military capabilities to the US rather than toward Taiwan, a Taiwanese defense expert said yesterday. Lin Yin-yu (林穎佑), an assistant professor at Tamkang University’s Graduate Institute of International Affairs and Strategic Studies, said the drills which involved dozens of warplanes sought to test China’s anti-access and area denial capabilities should the US and its allies attempt to interfere in a cross-strait conflict. Lin said that the latest Chinese drills coincided with a joint maritime exercise conducted by the US, South Korea
Thousands of bottles of Sriracha have been returned or destroyed after the discovery of excessive sulfur dioxide, a bleaching agent, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced on Tuesday. About 12,600 bottles totaling 9,991.8kg of the hot sauce imported from the US by Emporium Corp (河洛企業) were flagged at the border for containing illegal levels of sulfur dioxide, the FDA said in its regular border inspection announcement. Inspectors discovered 0.5g per kilogram of the common bleaching agent and preservative, higher than the 0.03g permitted, it said. As it is the first time within six months the product has been flagged, Sriracha products from
Two people were killed and another nine injured yesterday after being stung by hornets while hiking in New Taipei City’s Rueifang District (瑞芳), with officials warning against wearing perfume or straying from trails during the autumn to avoid the potentially deadly creatures. Seven of the hikers only sustained minor injuries after being stung along the Bafenliao Hiking Trail (八分寮) and made their way down the mountain with a guide, the New Taipei City Fire Department said. Four of them — all male — sustained more serious injuries and were assisted when leaving the mountain, the department said. Two of them, a man surnamed
CHANGES: While NCCU opened the nation’s first co-ed dorm in Mucha, a recent survey showed that Taiwanese are in favor of abolishing gender segregation at high schools National Chengchi University (NCCU) has opened a co-ed dormitory, a first in Taiwan among state-funded Taiwan universities. The 22 duplexes are at the renovated “Huanan New Village,” in Taipei City’s Mucha (木柵) area, near the NCCU campus, a school official said yesterday. Twenty-two out of 37 group applications were selected in a lottery draw to select who would be chosen to live in the units, which can either be shared by up to eight students if the unit has four bedrooms, or up to 10 students if it is a five-bedroom unit, officials said. Completed in 1964 for campus staff housing,
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