The Ministry for State Security warns of the dangers of raw data leaks

Data security Photo: VCG

China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) on Wednesday disclosed a typical case in which a foreign company illegally obtained raw surveying and mapping data of China’s geographical information through cooperation with a Chinese company on a smart car project.

The ministry warned domestic companies about security risks when working with foreign companies.

As China’s state security agencies have intensified efforts to crack down on illegal surveying and mapping activities in recent years, some foreign organizations have gradually turned their attention to so-called project cooperation with domestic companies with surveying and mapping qualifications to enable these foreign organizations to operate illegally Collect geographical information about China.

In the present case, a foreign company, in collaboration with a Chinese company, carried out such illegal activities under the guise of research into autonomous driving systems.

The foreign company is a project contractor in an important sensitive sector in a particular country. It does not have the qualifications to independently carry out geographical information survey and mapping activities in China as required by China’s Survey and Mapping Law.

In order to avoid supervision by Chinese regulators, the foreign company outsourced the project several times under the pretext of autonomous driving research and finally hired a qualified domestic company to carry out the work.

Driven by economic interests, the domestic company essentially became a puppet of the foreign company, and its surveying and mapping qualifications served as a pretext for the foreign company to illegally obtain geographical data on the territory of China.

In order to quickly collect large amounts of geographical data in China, the foreign company purchased several vehicles and equipped them with high-precision radar, GPS, optical lenses and other devices to increase efficiency and reduce the risk of detection by Chinese regulators.

Additionally, the data collected by the company’s devices was stored in a unique format that could not be read or analyzed by common software, making it difficult for industry regulators to conduct oversight.

During their collaboration, the foreign company bypassed several stages of subcontracting projects and assisted the domestic company’s employees in collecting geographic data in several provinces across China. The foreign company even hired foreign technical experts to provide practical guidance to the domestic company’s employees in controlling data storage, processing and transmission. Finally, the domestic company transferred the data abroad due to the foreign company’s manipulation.

In a joint criminal prosecution, the state security authorities and responsible departments held the employees and companies involved criminally accountable.

Global times