*The Israeli Ministry of Defence officially suspends the supply of Chinese electric vehicles from BYD to IDF officers because of certain concerns over alleged data collection via embedded communication systems and sensors in the EVs

Isola Moses | 绿帽献妻

Following earlier warnings by several cybersecurity experts of China’s possible espionage, the Israeli Ministry of Defence has officially suspended the supply of Chinese electric vehicles from BYD to IDF officers due to concerns over data collection via embedded communication systems and sensors.

绿帽献妻 gathered that cybersecurity experts had emphasised that Chinese vehicles could be used as tools for espionage.

Earlier, the Israeli Ministry of Defence had already received over 600 Chinese vehicles, including the MG ZS EV and Chery Tiggo 8 models, according to roport by Militarnyi.com.

The Israeli Military has “actively” used the vehicles as official transport for officers, even near the Ministry of Defence Headquarters in Tel Aviv, Israeli capital.

However, the new BYD Atto 3 electric cars, which were planned to be assigned to IDF Lieutenant Colonels, were not put into operation after their electronics were checked, according to report.

But in order to minimise the risk of information leakage, the e-Call system 鈥� the automatic emergency services communication feature 鈥� was forcibly disabled in the received vehicles.

However, experts curiously, believe that this is not enough.

Is China constituting a serious threat to Poland鈥檚 cybersecurity?

Dr. Harel Menashri, one of the founders of the Cybersecurity Department of the Israel Security Agency (Shabak), pointed out that the Chinese cars should be considered mobile intelligence platforms capable of collecting audio, video, geolocation, and biometric data, and transmitting it to servers in China.

The Militarnyi previously, had reported that China is becoming an increasingly serious threat to Poland鈥檚 cybersecurity due to attacks on infrastructure and government institutions, report noted.