Security News
Asia In Brief ByteDance, the Chinese developer of TikTok, "Can no longer be accurately described as a private enterprise" and is instead intertwined with China's government, according to a report [PDF] submitted to Australia's Select Committee on Foreign Interference through Social Media. The report alleges that China's government noticed as Douyin - the Chinese version of TikTok - boomed.
The United Kingdom government has banned use of Chinese social media platform TikTok among ministers and officials on their work devices as a "Precautionary" measure over worries the app is used to snoop on Brits. Speaking to Parliament this afternoon, Oliver Dowden, chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Secretary of State who oversees Cabinet Office policy, said the ban would have immediate effect and applied to devices issued within ministerial and non-ministerial departments, but not to "Personal devices for government employees or ministers or the general public."
The White House has ordered all federal government employees to delete TikTok from work devices, over fears the video-sharing app could be used to spy on Americans. TikTok has been downloaded by billions of people around the world, and is particularly popular among young people - but the US government believes that data could be shared with the Chinese government.
Congress is currently debating bills that would ban TikTok in the United States. There are several ways Congress might ban TikTok, each with different efficacies and side effects.
The European Commission on Thursday banned the use of the TikTok short video app on corporate devices and on the personal devices of employees enrolled in the commission's mobile device management service. The commission's statement cites the need to protect staff from a rising number of cyber threats but fails to explain while TikTok was singled out.
Korean car-makers Hyundai and Kia will issue software updates to some of their models after a method of stealing them circulated on TikTok, leading to many thefts and even some deaths. The "Kia Challenge" started circulating in mid-2022 and explained that it's possible to remove the steering column covering on some Hyundai and Kia models by force, exposing a slot that fits a USB-A plug.
Faculty and students at the University of Texas at Austin this week became the latest members of a public US university to lose access to Chinese video app TikTok via campus networks. According to Neyland's email, the ban puts the university in compliance with a December directive issued by state governor Greg Abbott.
France's data protection authority has fined TikTok UK and TikTok Ireland €5,000,000 for making it difficult for users of the platform to refuse cookies and for not sufficiently informing them about their purpose. The €5 million fine was determined by the severity of the violations, including the number of impacted individuals, which include children, and the number of times CNIL had to repeat its warnings to TikTok on the need to adhere to France's Data Protection Act.
Popular short-form video hosting service TikTok has been fined €5 million by the French data protection watchdog for breaking cookie consent rules, making it the latest platform to face similar penalties after Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft since 2020. The regulator said it conducted several audits between May 2020 and June 2022, finding that the ByteDance-owned company did not offer a straightforward option to refuse all cookies as opposed to just one click for accepting them.
The US government's New Year's resolution for 2023: no more TikTok at work. In an email to members and staff Tuesday, the Committee on House Administration banned the use of TikTok from House-managed mobile devices.