US warns companies of security threats posed by Chinese-made drones
- Department of Homeland Security issues alert over ‘risks’ associated with such devices, urges firms to ‘be aware’ of whether data is being stored by vendor
- Latest warning over threat from Chinese-manufactured equipment comes after US added Huawei to trade blacklist citing security issues
The US government has warned companies about security threats posed by Chinese-made drones, the latest in a series of advisories by Washington that portray Chinese technology products as potential conduits to intelligence organs in Beijing.
In an alert issued on Monday, the US Department of Homeland Security advised US companies to “be aware of whether your UAS [unmanned aerial systems] data is being stored by the vendor or other third parties. If it is being stored, find out how, where and for how long,” according to reports by CNN and Reuters.
“Information sharing is a key part of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s mission as the nation’s risk advisers,” an agency spokeswoman said in an email.
“CISA recently released an industry alert providing organisations with information related to the inherit risks associated with using UAS technology manufactured in China and measures to reduce such risk”, the spokeswoman said.
The spokeswoman declined to share the alert, explaining that it was “for official use only”.
