Consumers should throw away their Chinese phones and avoid buying new ones, Lithuania’s Defence Ministry has warned.

A report by its National Cyber Security Centre tested 5G mobiles from Chinese manufacturers.

It claimed that one Xiaomi phone had built-in censorship tools while another Huawei model had security flaws.

Huawei said no user data is sent externally and Xiaomi said it does not censor communications.

"Our recommendation is to not buy new Chinese phones, and to get rid of those already purchased as fast as reasonably possible," said Defence Deputy Minister Margiris Abukevicius.

Censorship

Xiaomi’s flagship Mi 10T 5G phone was found to have software that could detect and censor terms including “Free Tibet”, "Long live Taiwan independence" or "democracy movement", the report said.

It highlighted more than 449 terms that could be censored by the Xiaomi phone's system apps, including the default internet browser.

The research also found the Xiaomi device was transferring encrypted phone usage data to a server in Singapore.

Huawei P40 The report also highlighted a flaw in Huawei’s P40 5G phone, which put users at risk of cyber-security breaches.

“The official Huawei application store AppGallery directs users to third-party e-stores where some of the applications have been assessed by anti-virus programs as malicious or infected with viruses,” a joint statement by the Lithuanian Ministry of Defence and its National Cyber Security Centre said.

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-58652249