Your Refrigerator Has Eyes, Ears and a Voice

“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,”

“The most game-changing advantage of technology is that it enables the accumulation of massive amounts of data,”

“The [Chinese Communist Party] views data as a strategic resource. When processed and aggregated, data can support its interests across military, economic, political, cultural and other domains.”

“In line with CCP industrial policy to promote global champions in new industries, IOT companies have benefited from the creation of a domestic market which excludes international competition.”

Charles Parton, former British diplomat, report author

 

“We are legislating to protect consumers' connected devices, such as smartphones, TVs, speakers and routers, through new laws to strengthen their privacy and security.”

"It will ban sales in the UK of smart devices with poor cyber security and get rid of easy-to-guess passwords which are often included as standard with consumer tech."

British government spokesman

Telecoms companies were ordered to strip tech from Chinese firm Huawei from mobile and broadband networks over national security concerns Credit: VCG/VCG via Getty Images

China has many spyware tricks yet to be revealed. Above and apart from the clumsy effort it took to send a giant balloon over a sensitive military area in the United States, inviting a takedown engendering a warning from Chinese Premier Xi Jinping that there would be 'consequences'. Heavens above, think of all those intelligence-gathering satellites circling the Earth, beaming back data invaluable to the Intelligence Services of those countries that can afford them; and increasingly many now can. So why resort to a balloon?

 

There are, it seems, far more complex, little-imagined ways to gather sensitive intelligence; install microchips in everything. And since 'everything' is manufactured in China and shipped out worldwide, from the world's manufacturing colossus, Beijing has excelled at the game. To the point where the world is now being warned that their refrigerators, their cars, and even light bulbs are capable of collecting and transmitting data through the 5G phone network.

Beijing has enabled itself with the naive cooperation of its targets, to monitor intelligence targets, people, arms and supplies. Modules described as a "Trojan Horse" technology now pose a "wide-ranging" threat to U.K. national security, comes the warning sent to the U.K. government by one of its former diplomats, advising Parliament on Beijing in a report.

OODA, a Washington-based consultancy, states that the potential threat outmaneuvers any threats from Chinese-produced components in cellphone masts, a situation that led to a ban on Huawei products in cellphone infrastructure. But Beijing has more than merely one, two, three ways to sneak into restricted files to satisfy its appetite for data-gathering; military-industrial, technological, medical, governmental, what-have-you.

To the present, experts have been unable to grasp the "pervasive presence" of the modules, cellular IoTs. Now senior Members of Parliament are expressing grave concern. Ministers are called upon to take urgent action banning Chinese-made cellular loTs from goods sold in Britain. In his former diplomatic life, Mr. Parton spend 22 years dealing with China, Taiwan and Hong Kong; he is a special adviser to the Commons foreign affairs committee.

Cellular IoTs (Internet of Things), are small modules used in everything; smart fridges to advanced weapons systems to monitor use and transmit data to the owner -- often the manufacturer, using 5G. The Internet of Things reflects devices that connect and exchange data with other devices of the Internet. Cellular IoTs are the component that makes devices "smart".

It was revealed earlier that the security services dismantled ministerial cars, finding at least one of the devices hidden within another component -- leading to fears that China has the capacity to monitor movements of everyone, from the prime minister downward, with the use of the modules.

 

Millions of Chinese made chips are already in use in the UK (Image: Getty)