The Indian security establishment has asked troops posted along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), the border with China, to delete a number of mobile applications like WeChat, Truecaller, Weibo, UC Browser and UC News from their smartphones, or reformat the devices altogether, to guard against online espionage attempts from across the border.
Officials said the advisory issued to officers and other ranks follow inputs that foreign intelligence agencies, especially from China and Pakistan, were using such mobile apps to break into smartphones and steal data.
The Army, as well as central armed police forces like the Indo-Tibetan Border Police, are deployed along the 4,057km LAC, which stretches from Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh.
The armed forces, on their part, regularly issue such instructions to ensure all personnel maintains cybersecurity in light of mounting espionage attempts through malicious software to tap into smartphones as well as computers.
“The personnel are expected to maintain the security of their phones, whether official or personal, as well as computers. Such alerts and advisories, especially about Chinese-origin mobile apps as well as electronic devices, are issued from time to time,” said an official.
The IAF, for instance, had earlier asked all its officers and airmen as well as their families to avoid using Chinese Xiaomi smartphones and notebooks on the ground that they could transfer user data to remote servers located in China.
The fresh advisory comes at a time when Indian and Chinese forces continue to maintain high alertness levels along the LAC after they disengaged from the Dolam plateau near the Sikkim-Bhutan-Tibet trijunction on August 28 after 73 days of a tense faceoff in the area.
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