A defense minister has confirmed that the Ministry of Defence is currently examining the potential security risks posed by Chinese vehicles, while staff have been advised to avoid discussing secret matters in all cars.
Safety Advice for MoD Personnel
In a recent appearance on LBC, a defence minister commented on claims that MoD officials have been told not to talk about classified information while riding in Chinese vehicles.
He stated that the MoD is “examining” cars from China within its vehicle pools, however emphasised that security is a concern in all modern cars.
We have a fleet of thousands of vehicles in the MoD and Chinese ones represent a tiny fraction.
However regardless of if you’re driving a Chinese car or a non-Chinese car, our instruction to our staff is not to plug MoD technology into their vehicle, to avoid having conversations at a classified level in any kind of vehicle, due to the growing risks of surveillance that exist in every single vehicle, to restrict those confidential conversations in secure locations. This is a prudent and reasonable thing for anyone worried about security.
After it was suggested that it would be prudent for the ministry to cease using all Chinese vehicles, Pollard replied: That is exactly what we are looking into at the present time.”
Wider Security Background
This announcement comes as claims from Scandinavian countries have alerted the United Kingdom to the existence of multi-purpose kill switches in Chinese buses, which could enable the Chinese government to disable buses and cause chaos to transport systems.
Additionally, a Russian spy ship was reportedly shining lasers at Royal Air Force aircrew, labeled a “extremely risky” act by defence officials.
The wider security environment highlights the significance of strong measures and caution in every areas of official operations, from transport use to communication practices.
