A defence minister has stated that the Ministry of Defence is actively examining the potential security risks posed by Chinese vehicles, while staff have been advised to avoid talking about secret information in all vehicles.
Safety Guidance for Defence Staff
In a recent appearance on a radio station, Luke Pollard addressed claims that Ministry of Defence officials have been instructed not to talk about secret material while riding in China-made vehicles.
He explained that the ministry is “investigating” Chinese vehicles within its fleets, but noted that security is a concern in all modern vehicles.
We have a collection of tens of thousands of vehicles in the Ministry of Defence and Chinese ones account for a tiny fraction.
However regardless of if you’re traveling in a vehicle from China or a non-Chinese car, our instruction to our staff is not to plug Ministry of Defence devices into their car, to avoid having conversations at a classified level in any vehicle, due to the growing threats of eavesdropping that are present in all vehicle, to only have those secret conversations in protected areas. That’s a prudent and sensible thing for anyone worried about security.
After it was suggested that it would be prudent for the MoD to stop using every cars from China, Pollard responded: ‘That’s exactly what we’re investigating at the moment.”
Broader Defence Background
This announcement follows reports from Norway and Denmark have alerted the UK to the existence of multi-purpose shutdown mechanisms in Chinese buses, which could allow the Chinese government to switch off buses and cause chaos to transport systems.
Furthermore, a Russian spy ship has been directing lasers at Royal Air Force pilots, labeled a “highly dangerous” act by government representatives.
The wider security environment highlights the significance of robust protocols and caution in every areas of official operations, including vehicle usage to communication habits.
