Hong Kong Bans American Platforms for Governmental Purposes

A new policy has been introduced by Hong Kong, against growing cybersecurity risks, which has a government app ban on WhatsApp, WeChat, and Google Drive on work on computers by al governmental employees.

The Digital Policy Office announced such a move in order to avoid the risk of sensitive information falling into the wrong hands in the event of a cyberattack. Although the policy was looked down upon the governmental workers, it had to be applied on the spot.

All these government app banned services continue to be available for civil servants at work on the personal device under the new rules. The ban is not an absolute one, as managerial approval of exemptions may be allowed, this does provide some flexibility in case of necessity.

Increasing Cybersecurity Concerns

The policy has caused protests from the employees about the list of apps banned by government which caused problems because very many of the platforms rely on cloud storage and messaging services for day-to-day communication.

“Hacking is an issue that’s really growing. It’s also done by the US and Chinese governments to protect internal computer systems,” said Sun Dong, Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry supported the move during a radio interview.

“This is the necessary action for our systems to maintain security amidst the rising cyber threats,” Sun Dong added.

Experts’ Support on Banned Apps

Information technology experts say private companies do this too as the risks of data breaches and cybersecurity challenges become worse.

Francis Fong of the Hong Kong Information Technology Federation explained that the policy aimed to block malware from getting past the government’s firewalls through encrypted messages and minimize the threat of data leaks and this is why app ban took place.

According to Anthony Lai, director at cybersecurity firm VX Research Limited, the government is right in its direction given the relatively low cybersecurity awareness of some serving staff, and when some internal monitoring mechanisms are seriously inadequate. A history of data breaches in the Hong Kong government’s departments earlier this year leaked tens of thousands of people’s personal data and raised concerns about security loopholes.

The new security measures reflect Hong Kong’s effort to strengthen its defenses against the rising tide of cyber-attacks-even at a cost of added inconvenience for its civil servants.

Or Maybe…

The question ‘Which app government banned?’ has been going around a lot. There are definitely reasons for it to be banned as was stated above due to cybersecurity malware dysfunctions. Did it ever occur to you that the government app ban could have taken place to retaliate the TikTok ban that has been trying to take place in the US?

Apps that are banned in the US are about to be five applications in total, and the only app that has been facing problems whether its banned or not is TikTok. This is due to ‘cybersecurity’ reasons as the US government claims but the reasons extend to more serious ones. For example, TikTok is the only app that hasn’t banned any information on the genocide that has been taking place in Palestine by the Israelis. Since the American government funds such wars, it’s not to its benefit to have the American population know what’s taking place outside of their states.

There is always a bigger reason for a government app ban than what they state.

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