In the past few months, the government has been red flagging various Chinese apps and has also issued warnings as the apps can be used for cyber attacks against India.
Now, the Indian Army has issued a warning through a video in which it showed how Chinese hackers can steal data by stealthily entering into Whatsapp groups.
“The Chinese use all kinds of platforms to penetrate your digital world. WhatsApp groups are a new way of hacking into your system. Chinese numbers starting with +86 barge into your groups and start extracting all the data,” a video tweeted by the ADGPI said.
सजग रहे,सतर्क रहें,सुरक्षित रहें।#भारतीयसेना सोशल मीडिया उचित एवं नियमबद्ध एकाउंट को प्रोत्साहित करता है। हैकिंग जोरो पर है, उनके लिए जो असावधान हैं। अपने सोशल मीडिया को हमेशा चेक करें। व्यक्तिगत एवं ग्रुप एकाउंट के बारे में सावधान रहें, सुरक्षित रहें। @DefenceMinIndia @PIB_India pic.twitter.com/YQbdVFsmWe
— ADG PI – INDIAN ARMY (@adgpi) March 18, 2018
The video added if you change the SIM, it should be destroyed completely. In case of number change, group admin should be informed.
Earlier, the Ministry of Defence in India issued an order to the Indian army asking officers and all security personnel to remove, uninstall over 42 Chinese apps as these have been classified as ‘spyware’.
Mi Store, Weibo, WeChat, SHAREit, UC News, UC Browser, along with 36 other apps were included in the list.
Importantly, WeChat’s privacy policy states that WeChat gathers a whole range of data from its users, and to comply with “applicable laws or regulations” would readily share them with the Chinese government.
However, China’s most popular messenger app owned by Tencent, has denied the allegation of storing users’ chat histories.
Though the Chinese app companies deny of it, the Chinese government has different stand on it.
It has increased scrutiny of Internet applications, ordering firms to remove hundreds of apps that allow users to communicate confidentially or get around China’s so-called Great Firewall system of censorship and use overseas social media.
The actions are linked to real name authentication laws brought in earlier this year, requiring all network providers to verify the real names of users with state-issued IDs or passports, which must be accessible to authorities for surveillance purposes.
