China plans to drop the Microsoft Windows operating system in its military because of fears that the United States might use its vulnerabilities to spy into its military network.
The plan came after Google revoked Huawei's access to elements of its Android operating system, and Microsoft's move of pulling out Huawei products from its online stores in order to comply with the United States President Donald Trump's executive order.
The president ordered to block the Chinese from accessing the United States supply chain. The executive order requires approval from the United States government for any bid to sell American tech to Chinese firms.
The United States banned Huawei because of its close ties to the Chinese government. The Trump administration considers Huawei a cybersecurity risk. Intellectual property concern is one of the biggest drags during the trade talks between the United States and China.
In case that Google pulls out its services from Huawei, which run on Android, the Chinese tech giant will lose access to important services including Gmail, YouTube and Google Maps. Other American firms including Microsoft are distancing themselves from the China-based smartphone maker because of the growing trade dispute between China and the United States.
It is expected that China will impose the necessary measures to protect its own security and interests. China recently drafted cybersecurity regulations that will block United States technology imports blocked on national security grounds. This week, the Epoch Times reported that the Chinese government is preparing an alternative to replace the Windows operating system to prevent the United States from hacking into China's military network.
The publication quoted the report of Kanwa Asian Defence, a Canadian Military print publication, revealing that the Internet Security Information Leadership Group (ISILG) in China has been created in order to replace Windows, and the UNIX system, used by the Chinese military.
The Chinese government is concerned that the United States intelligence agencies are capable of hacking onto operating systems like Windows, and UNIX or Linux to be used in spying on Chinese military secrets. China plans to develop a more secure operating system that will offer more security against western attacks.
However, Ian Thornton-Trump, head of security at AmTrust International, explained that the reality of a secure OS is that you need a pipeline of developers to develop and support it given the economy in China a briefcase full of dollars is highly likely to yield you an advanced copy of the OS for opposing nation states to dissect and reverse engineer.
