cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/49815844
Sir Keir Starmer and his entire team are taking “burner” phones and laptops to China in an attempt to stop their hosts from spying on them.
The Times understands that dozens of disposable devices have been issued to the government delegation tasked with building bridges with Beijing this week.
New mobile phones, temporary Sim cards and throwaway laptops are being issued to the prime minister, attachés, special advisers, the No 10 policy team and digital media staffers before they departed on Tuesday night.
Sources suggested that no government equipment at all will be taken to the country over concerns about Chinese Communist Party snooping. Starmer and other officials have also been told not to bring any personal devices, in case they are compromised.
[…]
Government sources said officials were given iPhones that were barcoded and marked with red “security” stickers. Staff were instructed to return the phones immediately to security personnel on their return to the UK. They were advised to avoid charging devices with USB sockets, regarded as a potential route for digital attacks, and told to use only conventional plugs.
The China trip was understood to have been contingent on the approval of the mega-embassy. Ministers gave the go-ahead on Tuesday after more than a year of deliberations.
[…]
“We want to avoid the risk of China spying on us. As such we got burner phones that are made in China.”
Seriously, IPhones are the burner phones 😒
I know the State hates GraphoneOS and probably other privacy focused FOSS like it but it really would have been the far more optimal. Hell have the phones be models that only do talk and text, no Wi-Fi. Keep the wi-fi stuff on just computers and even then only connected to the embassy network
My dad who works for an Australian mining company has been given burner phones for all his trips to China for years now, same for laptops and anything that might be connected to the Internet.
Same has to be standard for travel to the US now.
Most companies in Europe cut down massively on US business trips not just because of this but also because employees refuse to go there.
I’m guessing it wouldn’t be very effective for European travellers to the US that already have a lot of their communication based on American servers/infrastructure.
Not to mention most of them running windows and using microsoft office
Yeah and, like Starmer with his burner phone, using Tim Apple™ Phone with “trust me bro, I’m not gonna tell anyone what you’re doing on your phone, bro, I only gave the fascist president of that hostile country 24 carat gold as tribute that one time, bro, it’s not like I’m on his side or whatever” security features.
Yeah that’s a huge problem. Many companies are working on reducing US services though.
As they should
Of course they would, similarly I’d imagine China does the same.
China bad!!!
It is. Not the worst (your beloved Russia is much-much worse), but still bad.
That’s a very Western POV. 🤷
Yes, of course the Russian point of view is quite different.
I’d say the worldwide POV outside of the West and vassal states is quite different but okay.
