An defence minister has revealed that the Ministry of Defence is actively looking into the potential security risks associated with Chinese cars, and staff have been told to avoid talking about classified matters in all vehicles.
Safety Guidance for MoD Staff
During a recently aired interview on LBC, Luke Pollard commented on reports that Ministry of Defence officials have been told not to talk about classified information while riding in China-made vehicles.
The minister said that the ministry is “examining” cars from China within its vehicle pools, but emphasised that safety is a issue in every modern vehicles.
We have a collection of thousands of vehicles in the Ministry of Defence and Chinese ones represent a tiny fraction.
However regardless of if you’re driving a vehicle from China or a car from another country, what we’ve asked our staff is to avoid connecting MoD devices into their vehicle, to avoid having discussions at a classified classification in any car, because of the growing threats of surveillance that are present in all automobile, to only have those secret conversations in protected areas. This is a wise and sensible thing for anyone worried about security.
After it was suggested that it would be wise for the MoD to stop using every cars from China, the minister responded: That is exactly what we are looking into at the present time.”
Broader Security Background
This announcement follows claims from Scandinavian countries have alerted the UK to the presence of dual-use kill switches in Chinese-made buses, which could allow China to disable public transport and bring chaos to public transit.
Furthermore, a Russia spy ship has been shining laser beams at RAF pilots, labeled a “highly dangerous” action by defence officials.
The broader defence situation highlights the significance of strong measures and vigilance in every aspects of official activities, including transport use to communication practices.
