Watch CBS News
/ CBS Baltimore
BALTIMORE – Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan issued an emergency directive to prohibit the use of TikTok, and other China and Russia-based products and platforms for state government officials.
Hogan said in a statement that those platforms present a cybersecurity risk to the state, including “cyber-espionage, surveillance of government entities, and inappropriate collection of sensitive personal information.”
“There may be no greater threat to our personal safety and our national security than the cyber vulnerabilities that support our daily lives,” Governor Hogan said. “As the cyber capital of America, Maryland has taken bold and decisive actions to prepare for and address cybersecurity threats. To further protect our systems, we are issuing this emergency directive against foreign actors and organizations that seek to weaken and divide us.”
The directive—issued by the state’s Chief Information Security Officer (CISO)—applies to TikTok; Huawei Technologies; ZTE Corp; Tencent Holdings, including but not limited to: Tencent QQ, QQ Wallet, and WeChat; Alibaba products, including but not limited to: AliPay; and Kaspersky.
TikTok is a video-sharing app, owned by the Chinese technology company ByteDance.
Read more at: https://www.thestate.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article269628871.html#storylink=cpy
Under this directive, agencies must remove any of these products from state networks, implement measures to prevent the installation of these products, and implement network-based restrictions to prevent the use of, or access to, prohibited services.
“This action represents a critical step in protecting Maryland State systems from the cybersecurity threats caused by foreign organizations,” State CISO Chip Stewart said.
Last week, FBI Director Christopher Wray reiterated that TikTok is a threat to national security, stating: “The Chinese government has shown a willingness to steal Americans’ data on a scale that dwarfs any other.”
In Wisconsin, Republican representatives in Congress called on Democratic Gov. Tony Evers to delete the video platform TikTok from all state government devices, calling it a national security threat.
The request comes a week after South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a Republican, banned state employees and contractors from accessing TikTok on state-owned devices, citing its ties to China. South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, also a Republican, banned TikTok from all state government devices.
First published on December 6, 2022 / 1:30 PM
© 2022 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
©2022 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.