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.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
A Taiwanese woman on Sunday was injured by a small piece of masonry that fell from the dome of St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican during a visit to the church. The tourist, identified as Hsu Yun-chen (許芸禎), was struck on the forehead while she and her tour group were near Michelangelo’s sculpture Pieta. Hsu was rushed to a hospital, the group’s guide to the church, Fu Jing, said yesterday. Hsu was found not to have serious injuries and was able to continue her tour as scheduled, Fu added. Mathew Lee (李世明), Taiwan’s recently retired ambassador to the Holy See, said he met
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
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