The Australian Ministry of Defence has banned employees and military personnel from loading WeChat messages on their work phones. (photo by the Australian Financial Review)
The Australian Ministry of Defence has banned its employees and military personnel from downloading Chinese social media and communications software WeChat to work phones, the Australian Financial Review reported.
Australia has been concerned about China`s so-called "espionage" in Australia, a move by the Defense Department that further highlights concerns about China. The Defense Department also said it allowed limited access to Facebook (Facebook), but not WeChat.
"on DOD mobile devices, the DOD does not provide or support unauthorized software, including WeChat social media applications." A spokesman for the department said in response to a question from the Australian Financial Review. However, he declined to give details of the ban on WeChat.
The spokesman also said that WhatsApp, a communications services platform, was currently undergoing a "security assessment".
The decision comes after Australia`s top intelligence agency said last year that it was "fed up" with foreign espionage, and former Australian Defense Minister Richard (Dennis Richardson) said Chinese "spies" were "quite active" in Australia.
"the concern about WeChat is not only that it has a close relationship with the Chinese government, but that [WeChat] user data may be exploited," said a cyber security expert linked to the federal government.
"it is understood that applications such as WeChat have a strong ability to collect and monitor data." The expert, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said: "[WeChat] software (if) is downloaded to the relevant equipment, and they will be very nervous when they break into a secure military network system," said the expert, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
India`s defence ministry took action in December to ban the use of WeChat and other Chinese apps because of concerns that they might contain spyware or malware.
Nevertheless, two big providers of the Australian Defense Department told the Australian Financial Review that their employees sometimes still use WeChat to deal with Chinese customers. They are open to whether employees use WeChat.
