The Indian army in a campaign on their social media platforms, published a video revealing the threat of Chinese using all kinds platforms to break into the digital world. The video posted by the army alleges that WhatsApp, the popular micro messaging from United States is the new way for the Chinese hackers to spy on Indians.
“The Chinese use all kinds of platforms to penetrate your digital world. WhatsApp groups are a new way of hacking into your system. Chinese numbers starting with +86 barge into your groups and start extracting all the data. ” warned the citizens in the warning message shared by the Indian Army on twitter.
While there is a rising concern over Chinese espionage across world with the prevailing use of internet and social media platforms, they are also posing security and privacy threats for all. According to the video, it also issues precautionary guidelines to secure oneself from the scrutiny of these Chinese spying mediums.
While the campaign advices to start checking your groups on a regular basis, it also suggests that “All contacts of the group should be saved by their names, scrutinise unknown numbers constantly. If you change your number, inform the group admin.”
“Destroy the SIM card if you change your number, and delete your WhatsApp on that number.” added the video message warning to be alert and be safe. Though there were no further details of the hacking attack from Chinese, it is reported that the video was issued in the service interest to the people of India.
Australia’s Department of Defence recently banned the use and download of Chinese micro messaging app, WeChat on their work phone recently. India’s defence forces are also banned from using WeChat and 40 other Chinese apps since last December. The ban against these Chinese apps come out of fear that they could contain spyware or malicious bugs.