 Hong Kong (CNN) - A group representing international companies in China has warned members that police in Beijing, Hebei and Shandong have required international firms to purchase Internet monitoring devices or risk having their connections cut. The Quality Brands Protection Committee (QBPC), a group aimed at safeguarding intellectual property rights in China, sent an email to its 216 members late last month warning of the police visits, saying it "would cause serious concerns from our members." The emailed alert, copies of which were provided to CNN, raise particular concerns for international businesses operating in China because many companies often use private networks that allow employees to skirt China's so-called "Great Firewall" of censors. But, based on the QBPC alert, it appears firms in some areas are being asked to install a device within their private systems to track all internet activity– and that information must be made available to police, looking for "illegal activity." "Reportedly, if they failed to do so, the police threatened to cut off their Internet connection and fine them." Another QBPC member company received a questionnaire from the local police unit asking about its Internet security measures, according to the QBPC email. "Given that if the local PSB (public security bureau) initiative were carried forward, it would cause serious concerns from our members, we are attempting to determine if any of our other 200-plus member companies have faced this same situation or know other member companies who have," Davis wrote. The email doesn't detail which companies were targeted. The QBPC membership represents a broad swath of international firms with operations in China, including technology companies like Apple, Nokia and Emerson, consumer product makers such as Anheuser-Busch, Procter & Gamble and Colgate-Palmolive, and automotive companies Toyota, Audi and Volkswagen AG. Time Warner, the parent company of CNN, is also a member. Davis has confirmed that he sent the email obtained by CNN. A spokesperson for QBPC said, so far, the group has received 15 replies from its members. Three member companies were asked by police to install internet logging equipment and two reported police requests to inspect their internet security measures. The others reported no contact from police. QBPC wouldn’t name the members who were approached. “The three companies are in different industries,” the spokesperson said. “Based on the members’ response, it seems the police visits are isolated incidents.” QBPC has reported the incidents to the Ministry of Commerce and “had informal discussion with various departments of the MPS (Ministry of Public Security).” Thomas Parenty, an information security specialist and former employee of the U.S. National Security Agency, said the devices could be used to spy on foreign companies and creates industrial espionage concerns. "From an information security perspective, something like this in place in a company's network could be used for exploratory attacks into the network itself," Parenty said. "It's a Trojan horse that fits in a computer rack. "If you're concerned about IP (intellectual property), you might as well roll up your tents because it's essentially game over," Parenty said. |
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Looks like more China FUD. Why is our media so intent on reporting half-truth?
So the facts are, out of 200+ member companies, only a hand full were contacted, ever fewer were followed up.
Looks like there isn't any edict or policy change from the central government. Rather they are isolated incidents by local police. Perhaps the local police noticed hacking going on, and are asking, politely, that unsuspecting foreign guests to beef up their internet security.
Sacrificing journalistic standards in favor of sensationalism and ideological activism is precisely why main stream media is in decline.
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Reblogged this on Informationnaija.
If the Chinese government wanted to capture traffics, they must have done that already at the ISP’s routers.
However, they got cheesed from getting encrypted stuffs (IPSec) the good companies use, so they now want the actual unencrypted traffics.
I think this is only possible if the Chinese can convince ISO (which made IPSec) to ditch IPSec in China only – Dream on…….
Chinas politburo are panicking and their lies will end
that's how it works here. like it or not. those are the rules. the chiense companies do it. So should any foreign based company. Why bother complaining. its only a small fee and you can always get a nice VPN to suffice.
just go with the flow and find your way around as we all have done so for a long time.
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This protocol is designed to protect communication in a secure manner using TCP/IP. It is a set of security extensions developed by IETF, and it provides security and authentication at the IP layer by using cryptography. To protect the content, the data is transformed using encryption techniques. There are two main types of transformation that form the basis of IPsec: the Authentication Header (AH) and Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP). These two protocols provide data integrity, data origin authentication, and anti-replay service. These protocols can be used alone or in combination to provide the desired set of security services for the Internet Protocol (IP) layer."..,;
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