Chinese Phone Turns Smart Spy

China-based leading smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi, which recently marked a successful entry into the Indian market, is allegedly a security threat. It has been accused by the Indian Air Force (IAF) of sending user data to remote servers located in China -- a charge that amounts to spying...

Xiaomi MI Hongmi 1280x720 MIUI V5

Field Reports

• F-secure, a leading security solution company, recently carried out a test of Xiaomi Redmi 1s, the company’s budget smartphone, and found that the phone was forwarding carrier name, phone number, IMEI (the device identifier) and numbers from address book and text messages back to Beijing.

• A Hong Kong-based mobile phone user claims to have tested the Redmi Note smartphone and found it was automatically connected to an IP address hosted in China. The data transmitted included photo in media storage and text messages also.

According to the PhoneArena report, looking up the website of the company owning the IP address in the range 42.62.48.0-42.62.48.255 reveals that the website owner is www.cnnic.cn. CNNIC is the administrative agency responsible for Internet affairs under the Ministry of Information Industry of People’s Republic of China. It is based in the Zhongguancun hi-tech district of Beijing.

Therefore, the IAF in its alert to all of its Commands has stated that air warriors and their family members are advised to refrain from using these devices. (more)