Chinese soldiers can now surf the Internet without concerns of leaking info thanks to the new platform.(Photo from web)
Chinese soldiers can now feel free to surf the Internet without worrying about leaking military secrets, Beijing Youth Daily reported. This is thanks to a new platform provided for the military by China Telecom.
The smart platform includes a computer "backstage," a terminal on mobile phones and an exclusive, secure network that connects the terminal and the backstage. Soldiers can go online via the terminal using their mobile phones in five theater commands of the People's Liberation Army (PLA).
Soldiers can use specific networks once their phones are equipped with access to the terminal, and they will not be threatened by security issues since they will not be using lines that are vulnerable to hackers, according to an engineer from China Telecom. The platform covers all five theater commands of the PLA in 21 provinces, with around 200,000 users, according to the engineer, surnamed Zhang.
The terminal can only be used on exclusively designed mobile phones. For safety reasons, these phones cannot be reset, and the programs on them cannot be uninstalled. Soldiers can also download apps via app stores. Individual detachments will decide which apps are permitted to be downloaded.
The administrators of the terminal can still regulate what soldiers are able to download and set prohibited "keywords," limiting what is allowed to be searched. The report stated that the app will not infringe on the privacy of soldiers; it will only intervene when soldiers attempt to search for pornographic or sensitive military content.
Zhang said that soldiers can purchase compatible phones from China Telecom, or obtain an exclusive code from the army in order to download and install the terminal. The platform has cooperated with seven Chinese mobile phone producers to provide a wide variety of compatible phones. Once soldiers retire, their phones can still be used as ordinary cell phones once they go through a special update. At that point, searches done on the phone are no longer subject to tracking.
The app will be exhibited at the 2016 National Network Security Publicity Week in Wuhan beginning on Sept. 19.
