Throw away your Chinese phones, urges Defence Ministry

Lithuanian cybersecurity experts are urging the country's government agencies to abandon the use of Chinese smartphone brands. Lithuania's National Cyber Security Center said it found four major cybersecurity risks for devices made by Huawei and Xiaomi

Vilnius (Lithuania): Lithuanian cybersecurity experts are urging the country's government agencies to abandon the use of Chinese smartphone brands after an investigation identified security vulnerabilities and censorship concerns with certain devices. Lithuania's National Cyber Security Center said it found four major cybersecurity risks for devices made by Huawei and Xiaomi, including two relating to pre-installed apps and one involving personal data leakage, and warned against using these two brands.

Xiaomi phones, which contain a content-filtering feature for 449 keywords or groups of keywords in Chinese characters, also carry the risk of possible restrictions on freedom of expression, according to the Lithuanian investigation. The cybersecurity center warned the function could be activated at any time and said it did not rule out the possibility that words written in Latin characters could be added. According to the Lithuanian report, apps receive updated lists of censored words and phrases and are capable of blocking them.

The phrases include "Free Tibet", "Voice of America", "Democratic Movement" and "Long Live Taiwan Independence." Although the content-filtering feature was disabled and no censorship was performed on the phones the Lithuanian center inspected, the center warned the function could be activated at any time. A Huawei spokesperson in Lithuania denied the allegations.