China warns office workers foreign spies can steal data via commonplace online software
Uploading confidential files to those platforms increased the risk for “overseas spying and intelligence agencies” to “steal” sensitive data and should be “strictly prohibited”, the ministry said.
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The ministry singled out a type of product called File Transfer Assistant, which bears the same name to a file backup service provided by Tencent’s WeChat, allowing users to send files to themselves.
The ministry said that when employees uploaded classified documents from personal devices to cloud storage systems such as File Transfer Assistant, it “greatly increases risks of overseas spying and intelligence agencies obtaining relevant documents through [inserting] Trojan viruses”.
“The back end of the transfer software company can easily obtain confidential documents, and cannot effectively control the scope of access, which easily causes leakage,” it said.
Tencent suspended all file uploads to another cloud service tool, WeCloud, a month later, and said it would stop operation in October because of “business restructuring”.
A notice on Tencent’s WeCloud website urged customers to back up their files and said it would refund subscribers of the service.
The application regularly reminds users that confidential content is prohibited in the system during uploads.
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The ministry’s call is part of China’s wider information protection campaign amid tech rivalry and geopolitical tensions with the US.