The
Chinese army has warned the wives of its service personnel to keep
secrets away from mobile messaging app WeChat after strangers were found
accessing sensitive information through their chat group.
Wives
of officers at a brigade under the People’s Liberation Army (PLA)
ground force’s 20th Group Army established a chat group to discuss how
to take care of their husbands, but their talks often involved sensitive
information such as the unit’s drill operations and schedules, China
Daily reported.
Some
strangers were found seeking information about the brigade through the
chat group, which has more than 50 members including officers, their
wives and several vendors doing business near the battalions, the
newspaper said. Having realised the risks of leaking secrets on the
mobile phone platform, commanders of the brigade organised lectures
about confidentiality for family members and selected a wife to help
manage and supervise the online talks, according to the report.
“Last
year, I set a photo of myself and my husband in his uniform as my
WeChat picture, then a stranger asked me to add him or her to my
friends’ list on WeChat several times, saying he or she wanted to make
friends with service members,” said a woman who identified herself as
Xiao.
Her
husband is a staff officer of the 13th Group Army. “My husband told me
that I had violated confidentiality rules and made me delete all his
uniform pictures.”
Xiao said she is now very careful about posting photos and adding strangers on WeChat.
In
early February, the PLA published a host of disciplines, requesting
that service members strictly follow rules on mobile phones and the
Internet, and forbidding them from involvement in personal blogs, online
chatting or job hunting.
Yu
Qiaohua, a professor studying military personnel management at the PLA
National Defence University, said service members across the world must
keep secrets.
“Modern
communication platforms such as the Internet can be easily utilised by
foreign agents to collect sensitive information about the PLA, so our
service personnel must enhance their awareness of secrecy and maintain
vigilance when using such platforms,” she told state-run China Daily.
Posted by : Gizmeon
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