Germany’s Domestic Intelligence Service (BfV) has warned companies to be careful when dealing with authoritarian foreign governments such as China.
German companies should be careful about mandatory tax software required by the Chinese government because these programs pose a risk of Chinese authorities gaining access to internal company information, BfV Vice President Sinan Selen said in Berlin on Wednesday.
“We are increasingly seeing attempts to influence politics, business and science through illegitimate means, but also through classic espionage,” Selen said at the start of a joint event to tackle risks from China organized by the agency and the Alliance for Security in Business (ASW). ) on Wednesday.
He said it is high time that business leaders come to a more realistic assessment. Where German managers had been too naive and optimistic, “these companies have practically fallen apart,” he said.
To guard against this risk and the infiltration of malware via Chinese apps, German companies are now generally giving their employees in China ’empty’ devices that operate outside the global corporate network.
ASW director Günther Schotten said business travelers should be aware that confidential documents in China may not be safe in a hotel safe.
The conference comes just days after German security services arrested four suspects on charges of spying for China, including an aide to a prominent politician in the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), Maximilian Krah.
Shortly before, three suspected spies had been arrested in West Germany on charges that they had obtained information about military technology in Germany and passed it on to the Chinese secret service.
