Cirlig is speaking with Forbes after discovering that his Redmi Note 8 smartphone was watching much of what he was doing on the phone. That data was then being sent to remote servers hosted by another Chinese tech giant, Alibaba, which were ostensibly rented by Xiaomi.
The seasoned cybersecurity researcher found a worrying amount of his behavior was being tracked, whilst various kinds of device data were also being harvested, leaving Cirlig spooked that his identity and his private life was being exposed to the Chinese company.
When he looked around the Web on the device’s default Xiaomi browser, it recorded all the websites he visited, including search engine queries whether with Google or the privacy-focused DuckDuckGo, and every item viewed on a news feed feature of the Xiaomi software. That tracking appeared to be happening even if he used the supposedly private “incognito” mode.
Many more millions are likely to be affected by what Cirlig described as a serious privacy issue, though Xiaomi denied there was a problem. Valued...
“The real challenge for consumers is that there’s a lot of things they can buy on Amazon, Target, Best Buy. They have no idea there is security vulnerabilities in there and our sort of regulatory system, even though we have lots of regulations all over the place it doesn’t follow through to the end consumer,” Roslyn Layton said on CNBC’s Squawk Box.
“A lot of American military people have been using that tool and it knows exactly where people are. Soldiers who are in the field, when...
Each year, established technology companies roll out new deals, promotions and offerings on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Advertisements for these products will highlight their affordability, performance and practicality. They will also ignore their vulnerabilities and threats to consumer privacy. Huawei phones, Lenovo laptops, Lexmark printers and GoPro cameras are four examples of products whose flaws must be known by consumers in the west before they consider buying them this holiday season.
Significantly, Huawei, Lenovo and Lexmark are Chinese-owned and closely aligned with the Chinese government. China’s National Intelligence Law compels Chinese companies to provide unmitigated intelligence to...
The Trump administration has told the German government it would limit intelligence sharing with Berlin if Huawei Technologies Co. is allowed to build Germany’s next-generation mobile-internet infrastructure.
The Trump administration has told the German government it would limit intelligence sharing with Berlin if Huawei Technologies Co. is allowed to build Germany’s next-generation...
In their rush to declare moral superiority over the US, European policymakers disregarded the existential threats to privacy by network hardware manufacturers Huawei, ZTE, and Lenovo.
My goal is for Congress to learn about the results of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), avoid its mistakes, and ultimately leapfrog Europe with...
‘Lenovo computers … have been shown by the Department of Homeland Security to contain software, dating back to 2010, that permits remote hacking attacks,’ [U.S. Rep. Bob] Goodlatte said.
Social media giant Facebook is under fire for sharing data with four Chinese electronics companies that critics say pose security and privacy risks for Americans’...
Lenovo has been linked to Chinese state-led cyberespionage efforts.
The U.S. government needs a national strategy for supply chain risk management (SCRM) of commercial supply chain vulnerabilities in U.S. federal information and communications technology...
Top officials from the CIA, NSA, FBI and the Defense Intelligence Agency testified …that the Chinese smartphone makers posed a security threat to American customers.
U.S. intelligence agencies have issued a stern warning to Americans: Do not buy smartphones made by Chinese tech companies Huawei or ZTE. Top officials from...
Lenovo … has settled with the Federal Trade Commission over charges it shipped some of its laptops preloaded with software that compromised security protections in order to deliver ads to consumers.
Lenovo, the world’s second largest computer manufacturer, has settled with the Federal Trade Commission over charges it shipped some of its laptops preloaded with software...
