China’s cyber security authorities have accused “foreign” geographic information software systems (GIS) of deliberately building in spyware and vulnerabilities that leak data, posing a threat to its national security and industry.
Following this announcement, the Ministry of State Security initiated a nationwide national inspection to prevent such data leaks.
In a post on its WeChat account earlier this week, Ministry added that the inspection had already found cases in which foreign geographic information software (GIS) used in industries such as transportation, energy, military, and other important fields had collected and transferred “classified and sensitive” geographic data.
China plans to use GIS software in areas such as agriculture, automated vehicles, and express online shopping and food deliveries.
“Some of the data is important and sensitive, and even involves state secrets, posing a threat to our national security,” it said, adding that “geographic data is classified as high-value intelligence and is a key target for foreign spy agencies in their intelligence theft efforts.”
China said the culprits, which it did not identify, deliberately pre-built “backdoors” in software to allow for cyberattacks and data theft.
According to the WeChat post, high-precision geographic information could be used to recreate 3D maps related to the country’s transport, energy, and military systems, opening the sectors to threats.
In the third quarter of this year, China saw almost 1.5 million accounts breached, the fourth most-breached country of this time frame after the US, Russia, and France.
Despite a 76% decrease in breached accounts globally compared to the previous quarter, China’s number of breached accounts increased by 14 times, at 110k in Q2.
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