Advertisement
China warns office workers foreign spies can steal data via commonplace online software
- Ministry of State Security declares instant chat, format conversion tools and file transfer apps carry ‘dark tech’ espionage risk
Reading Time:2 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
1
Hayley Wongin Beijing
China’s Ministry of State Security has warned office workers that online work tools can pose espionage risks, and that leaks have “occurred repeatedly” in recent years.
Advertisement
“Many online platforms gathered powerful ‘dark technology’ functions that combine both social and office work features,” the ministry said on its official WeChat account on Sunday.
It cited instant communication, format conversion, file transfer and group discussion tools as examples of risky applications.
Uploading confidential files to those platforms increased the risk for “overseas spying and intelligence agencies” to “steal” sensitive data and should be “strictly prohibited”, the ministry said.
02:15
Airports across the world see operations disrupted as Microsoft systems outage hits globally
Airports across the world see operations disrupted as Microsoft systems outage hits globally
A similar call about file transfer tools went out to government officials and employees in June, and last month a major Chinese tech company announced it was suspending a file storage and transfer tool.
Advertisement
Advertisement