The Lithuanian Defense Ministry warned public institutions and consumers of the country against the use of Chinese phones on Wednesday, concern in particular as possible security flaws and data leaks."The risks we are talking about are real," the defense minister Margiris Abukevicius told AFP..These words arise after the National Cybersecurity Center has detected risks on certain models of phones from Chinese manufacturers Huawei and Xiaomi.
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The Lithuanian defense vice-minister notes that around 200 public institutions of the Baltic States use Chinese manufacturing devices and he considers that the public sector as a whole "should not make use" of Chinese equipment."This is the best measure to reduce risks," insisted the vice-minister.A report from the National Cybersecurity Center considers that Xiaomi phones are able to detect and censor sentences such as "Long live the independence of Taiwan" or "Tibet Libre".Quoted by the BBC, a spokesperson of Xiaomi said that the manufacturer's devices "did not censor communications towards or from its users".
Regarding Huawei, the report says that brand devices are a threat because they automatically redirect users to third -party application shops that can accommodate programs infected with viruses.Critics that Huawei also rejected, affirming by the voice of a spokesperson that questions of cybersecurity and confidentiality constitute for him "an absolute priority"."Huawei performs regular security checks to ensure that the user only downloads secure applications," he added.Huawei launched its house operating system at the start of summer for its smartphones, Harmonyos, after being deprived of Android license, owned by Google, following American sanctions.
The United States, which accuses the telecoms group of being able to spy on Beijing, also prohibited access to the American market.Relations between Lithuania, a member of the European Union, and China have been notoriously tense for several weeks, especially after the first left in May the forum "17+1" which brings together Beijing and the countries of Central European andoriental, seeing a factor of division of Europeans.In mid-August, China, for its part, recalled its ambassador in Lithuania after the green light from the Balte country at the opening of a representation of Taiwan, which Beijing considers as one of its provinces.Beijing also ordered Vilnius to recall his ambassador stationed in China.