(Ottawa) After TikTok, the turn of WeChat and Kaspersky: starting this Monday, it will be prohibited to use these applications respectively developed in China and Russia on devices provided by the Government of Canada.
These apps were determined by Canada’s chief information officer to pose “an unacceptable level of risk to privacy and security”, with their data collection methods allowing “considerable access to content” from mobile devices .
As of Monday, October 30, the suite of WeChat and Kaspersky applications will be removed from mobile devices provided by the government – and in the future, users will no longer be able to download them, it was announced in a press release. .
“We are taking a risk-based approach to cybersecurity by removing access to these applications on government mobile devices,” Treasury Board President Anita Anand said Monday.
“We will continue to regularly monitor potential cyber threats and take immediate action if necessary,” she added in the same press release, where it is specified that there is “no reason to believe that government information have been compromised.
The federal government announced last February the banning of the social network application TikTok, developed in China, from Government of Canada mobile devices. This decision was quickly copied in Quebec.