Network devices from several Chinese manufacturers are insecure and allow personal information to be leaked, testing commissioned by the Executive Yuan has shown.
A variety of devices and software, including apps, from Chinese, US and South Korean manufacturers that are used by government agencies at the central and local level were subjected to black-box testing — in which the functionality of an application is examined without knowing about its internal structure, an information-security official said yesterday on condition of anonymity.
The Telecom Technology Center conducted the tests, which simulated cyberattacks, to determine their resilience to the attacks, the official said.
The center said it would send the results of the tests to the manufacturers and retest the affected devices in two months, pending software updates.
The Chinese manufacturers included Xiaomi Corp (小米), Oppo Mobile Telecommunications Corp (歐珀), Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co (杭州海康威視數字技術) and Zhejiang Dahua Technology Co (浙江大華技術).
Information stored on some of the tested Chinese-made products was found to be insecure, the official said.
Of the software that failed to meet national requirements for information security, one app was from Oppo and seven were from Xiaomi, while software and devices from Samsung Electronics Co and Apple Inc passed all their tests, the official said.
Tests on devices from Hikvision and Dahua were aimed at testing the security of their system software, identity-recognition software, authorization mechanisms and their protection of personal information, the official said.
The monitoring software in Hikvision network camera model DFI 6257E and Dahua infrared camera model DH-IPC-HFW1230SN exhibited abnormal behavior, did not have alert functions and received a relatively low score of seven in version 3.1 of the Common Vulnerability Scoring System, which indicates security loopholes, the official said.
Both devices also used an insecure encryption system and an insufficiently complex verification system, and neither had shells designed to prevent dismantling, the official said.
The center also conducted tests on drones built by Shenzhen DJI Sciences and Technologies (深圳大疆創新科技有限公司), which supplies the drones used by Taiwan Water Corp (台灣自來水).
Tests on the company’s Mavic Pro, Mavic 2 Pro and Phantom 4 Pro V2.0 models showed signs of signal interference, which appeared in the devices’ logs, the official said.
They all had weak information-security mechanisms, among other problems, the official added.
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