TN police put 42 Chinese apps under scanner

A Selvaraj | TNN | Dec 1, 2017, 00:01 IST

Chennai: The Tamil Nadu police have told subordinate officers to delete from their mobile phones 42 applications deemed detrimental to data security, and a threat to the force and national security.

The move comes after troops posted along the China border were instructed to do the same last week. According to reports, a circular was issued by the Intelligence Bureau that flagged 'Chinese' apps.

Senior officers in Tamil Nadu have been instructed to communicate with their subordinates and get the 'suspicious' mobile applications uninstalled. "We have informed all the officials to uninstall these applications and advised them to format their mobiles after uninstalling them," a senior cybercrime official said.

The decision was made after Intelligence Bureau officials in coordination with cybercrime experts reviewed the apps, developed mostly by Chinese firms. "As this could pose a threat to national security, we have advised all the police personnel to be cautious before installing these apps on their mobiles," said a police officer.

Applications under the scanner include popular ones like WeChat, True Caller, SHAREit, 360 Security and Clean Master that could spread malware and spyware enabling the application developer to access data and other information in the phones of the end users.

When asked how the department concluded that the said apps were a threat to security, a senior cybercrime expert attached to the Tamil Nadu police refused to comment. "We have trained cybercrime hackers and they used modern tools to trace the presence of malware hidden inside these apps," the officer said.

Tech experts have welcomed the move. "Many people are talking about privacy and personal safety but they are allowing a stranger to enter their house in the form of apps," said V Rajendran, Cyber Society of India consultant and chairman of Digital Security Association of India.

Rajendran said popularity of an app might not ensure that it was foolproof. "Social networking also has a high security risk. No messaging service can be stated to be 100% safe and impenetrable. A service considered secure today could prove to be vulnerable tomorrow," he said.

In a related development, True Caller, also on the list of forbidden apps, came out with a statement on Thursday denying that it was a malware. "In response to certain reports, we would like to clarify that we are a Sweden-based company. We are not sure why the app is on this list, but we are investigating," the statement read.