China could use everyday home appliances to spy on Brits, 'we are not yet awake to this threat’

A former US diplomat has authored a new report that has reviewed China’s spying capability and says ‘we need to wake up’.

‘Weaponising’ home appliances

Charles Parton, a former US diplomat based in Beijing, China, has authored a new report for the US-based security consultancy OODA, Express reports.

According to Parton,China is in the position to ‘weaponise’ everyday home appliances through their smart microchips to listen in to conversations, collect data, and perform other various intelligence-gathering actions.

Parton claims that Chinese-manufactured microchips have been compromised by ‘trojan horse’ technology,which is software disguised as normal but in fact contains a backdoor for hackers.

Appliances such as fridges, smart light bulbs, video doorbells, video baby monitors, cars and many other modern everyday tools could be vulnerable.

The report also suggests that the scale of the potential national security threat outweighs that posed by China’s involvement in the UK’s mobile phone masts, which saw the UK government ban the use of Huawei products.

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Parton also claimsthat we are not yet aware of the scale of the problem as many countries could become dependent on China:

We are not yet awake to this threat. China has spotted an opportunity to dominate this market, and if it does so it can harvest an awful lot of data as well as making foreign countries dependent on them.

Banning Chinese 'internet-of-things' tech

The OODA report has called for banning Chinese 'internet-of-things' cellular chips which can collect and transmit data via a 5G signal.

'Internet-of-things' is a modern technology that enables tools such as home appliances to connect to the wifi network of a household and provide owners with greater comfort and functionalities,yet they also present great security vulnerabilities.

Parton claims that compromised chips can be put into laptops, voice-controlled speakers, smart watches, smart energy meters, doorbell cameras, police body cams, cashpoints, cars and even hot tubs, Express reports:

It's time to wake up – free and open countries should ban Chinese-manufactured modules from their supply chains as soon as possible.

Sources used:

-Express: ‘Fears grow that China may be monitoring Brits through everyday smart home appliances’

-Express: ‘Chinese spies can use fridge and laptop microchips to monitor Britons, UK warned’