Owing to security concerns, Indian Air Force asks personnel not to use Xiaomi Redmi 1s phones.
The Indian Air Force (IAF) has asked all its personnel and their family members not to use the Xiaomi RedMi 1S phone owing to security concerns. According to a statement issued by the IAF, the RedMi 1S device poses a huge security risk as it transfers phone and network information to Chinese servers.
The advisory is based on information that was received from the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) and a report that was published in August by software security firm F-Secure. Xiaomi is a Chinese phone manufacturer that entered the Indian market in June 2014 with their Mi3. The phone was sold exclusively through Flipkart. The popularity of the new phone soared and it sold like hot cakes.
Soon after this, Xiaomi discontinued their Mi3 to facilitate the sales of their new, cheaper, smartphone RedMi 1S. The F-Secure report had claimed that the Xiaomi RedMi 1S was sending the IMEI number, telecommunication network name, phone number and SMS received to a server based in Beijing.
In another report that they published a week later, F-Secure noted that the Chinese phone manufacturer had addressed the security concerns that were highlighted in their previous report. The information sending is now optional and is sent through an HTTPS server.
