MIIT: China Mobile and China Telecom App Stores Full of Security Holes

In the process of conducting an evaluation of China’s internet in which the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology found that 98 percent of Chinese sites were up to code in terms of security, the Ministry has also apparently discovered some big problems in the app stores of both China Mobile and China Telecom. Although there are no details yet on exactly what these flaws are, the Ministry’s assistant director of telecom security, Xiong Sihao, did say that some of the issues are “holes” that could potentially be exploited to collect users’ data.

Xiong also expressed displeasure at the seemingly-glacial pace of security development:

Looking at the industry now, there has not been any fundamental change in the [security] weaknesses of the [telecom] operators’ internet environment. Although there have been improvements, there has not been any fundamental change.

This news will probably help amplify calls that the government needs to be more active in mandating that companies meet security standards and protect user data. Personally, I can’t help but wonder, if even China Mobile and Telecom’s official app stores are full of holes, how much worse must some of those third-party app stores be?

[Guangzhou Daily via Sina Tech]