Chinese Border Agents Now Installing Malware On Foreigners' Cellphones

(Mis)Uses of Technology

from the 'when-in-Rome'-will-be-enforced dept

The Chinese government is no longer content to place its own citizens under pervasive surveillance. There’s a new twist to border device searches in certain areas of the country: the installation of software that provides government agents with plenty of data — including text messages — from visitors’ phones. Joseph Cox of Motherboard has the details.

The Android malware, which is installed by a border guard when they physically seize the phone, also scans the tourist or traveller’s device for a specific set of files, according to multiple expert analyses of the software. The files authorities are looking for include Islamic extremist content, but also innocuous Islamic material, academic books on Islam by leading researchers, and even music from a Japanese metal band.

It’s a pretty open intrusion. The malware makes no attempt to hide itself. It even places an icon on the device’s application screen. The app has been uploaded by Motherboard and analysis shows this may possibly be for the convenience of the person scanning the phone. The app is sideloaded by border agents, who run a scan and search for the targeted content. Once this is done, those files can be viewed/exfiltrated and the app uninstalled. Also, soon after the article was published, most of the major anti-malware providers started flagging this software.

It’s all part of the surveillance regime the Chinese government has directed towards the Uighur population in Xinjiang. Only now it’s spread past the historically-oppressed population to visitors to the region. Pretty much anyone travelling into the region via certain checkpoints is subject to device seizures and malware installation.

One tourist who crossed the border and had the malware installed on their device provided a copy to Süddeutsche Zeitung and Motherboard. A member of the reporting team from Süddeutsche Zeitung then also crossed the border and had the same malware installed on their own phone.

The Chinese government has never really worried about what other countries think about its practices and programs. The expressions of dismay from activists and journalists isn’t going to result in the government rethinking these activities. However, recent protests in Hong Kong show the situation there isn’t entirely hopeless: the Chinese government can be persuaded to rethink some of its efforts with enough pushback.

But for the most part, the capacity and capabilities of China’s surveillance network continue to expand. But what it’s doing isn’t necessarily unusual. The same tech and programs are in use in freer countries, limited only by built-in protections these governments can choose to amend or excise almost at will.

Perversely, the discussion here focuses on the Chinese government targeting foreigners, while generally just accepting its full-fledged domestic surveillance program. It’s the complete opposite of how things are measured here in the United States, where we somewhat expect our government to subject foreign visitors to heightened scrutiny but to keep their eyes, ears, and hands off US citizens. It’s completely possible for every government to be handling surveillance issues badly, with the Chinese government merely being the most unapologetic participant in these programs.

Filed Under: border crossings, china, malware, phones, surveillance, uighur