The Canadian authorities have announced this Monday the prohibition of the use of the Chinese messaging application WeChat and the Russian computer security application Kaspersky on all those official mobile devices supplied by the Government, and has ordered the removal of such applications.
As detailed by the Treasury Board of Canada, this decision is aimed at “keeping government information and networks secure”. “We regularly monitor potential threats and take immediate action to address risks,” it said in a statement.
“Canada’s Chief Information Officer determined that the WeChat and Kaspersky suite of applications presents an unacceptable level of risk to privacy and security,” reads the brief, which stresses that these two applications combined involve “significant access to device content.”
The Canadian authorities stressed that the decision to ban the use of these two applications was taken “to ensure that the Government of Canada’s networks and data remain safe and secure and are in line with the approach of our international partners”.
Nevertheless, and assuming that the risks of using these applications “are clear”, the Canadian Executive has no evidence at this time that any government or confidential information has been compromised or is in the hands of the respective Chinese and Russian companies.
Likewise, the Canadian authorities have left it up to each citizen to decide whether to use these applications. “It is a personal choice,” they said.