The U.S. Senate on Thursday unanimously voted to ban federal employees from using TikTok on government-issued devices. Reuters reports: The app has come under fire from U.S. lawmakers and the Trump administration over national security concerns because China’s ByteDance owns the technology. The company currently faces a deadline of Sept. 15 to either sell its U.S. operations to Microsoft Corp or…
Tag: Communist Party
US Steps Up Campaign To Purge Chinese Apps
The Trump administration said late Wednesday it was stepping up efforts to purge “untrusted” Chinese apps from US digital networks and called the Chinese-owned short-video app TikTok and messenger app WeChat “significant threats.” From a report: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said expanded US efforts on a program it calls “Clean Network” would focus on five areas and include steps…
DOD, FBI, DHS Release Info on Malware Used in Chinese Government-Led Hacking Campaigns
The U.S. government today publicly exposed malware used in Chinese government hacking efforts for more than a decade. From a report: The Chinese government has been using malware, referred to as Taidoor, to target government agencies, entities in the private sector, and think tanks since 2008, according to a joint announcement from the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security…
The Vatican Is Said To Be Hacked From China Before Talks With Beijing
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: Chinese hackers infiltrated the Vatican’s computer networks in the past three months , a private monitoring group has concluded, in an apparent espionage effort before the beginning of sensitive negotiations with Beijing. The attack was detected by Recorded Future, a firm based in Somerville, Mass. The Chinese Communist Party has…
US Accuses Supplier for Amazon, Apple, Dell, GM, Microsoft of Human Rights Abuses
The US Department of Commerce added 11 Chinese companies to its list of firms implicated in human rights violations, including China’s reported campaign against Muslim minority groups from an area of the country known as the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. At least one of those companies, Nanchang O-Film Tech, is listed as a supplier or undefined “partner” with nearly two dozen…
US Threatens To Restrict WeChat Following TikTok Backlash
Amid intense scrutiny over TikTok as a potential national security risk in the U.S., WeChat, the essential tool for Chinese people’s day-to-day life, is also taking heat from Washington. TechCrunch reports: White House trade advisor Peter Navarro told Fox Business on Sunday that “[TikTok] and WeChat are the biggest forms of censorship on the Chinese mainland, and so expect strong action…
FCC Declares Huawei, ZTE ‘National Security Threats’
The Federal Communication Commission has declared Chinese telecom giants Huawei and ZTE “national security threats,” a move that will formally ban U.S. telecom companies from using federal funds to buy and install Huawei and ZTE equipment. From a report: FCC chairman Ajit Pai said that the “weight of evidence” supported the decision to ban the technology giants. Federal agencies and lawmakers…
Twitter Deletes Over 170,000 Accounts Tied To Chinese Propaganda Efforts
Twitter announced Thursday that it had deleted more than 170,000 accounts tied to a Chinese state-linked operation that were spreading deceptive information around the COVID-19 virus, political dynamics in Hong Kong, and other issues. The Hill reports: Almost 25,000 of the accounts that were deleted formed what Twitter described as the “core network,” while around 150,000 accounts were amplifying messages from…
US Probes University of Texas Links To Chinese Lab Scrutinized Over Coronavirus
The Education Department has asked the University of Texas System to provide documentation of its dealings with the Chinese laboratory that U.S. officials are investigating as a potential source of the coronavirus pandemic. From a report: The request for records of gifts or contracts from the Wuhan Institute of Virology and its researcher Shi Zhengli, known for her work on bats,…
False Claims Spreading Across YouTube and Embraced By Chinese Communist Party Media Accuse US Army Reservist of Starting the Coronavirus
Donie O’Sullivan, reporting for CNN Business: Maatje Benassi, a US Army reservist and mother of two, has become the target of conspiracy theorists who falsely place her at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, saying she brought the disease to China. The false claims are spreading across YouTube every day, so far racking up hundreds of thousands of apparent views, and…