Security Concerns with the App Tik Tok; Concerns Not Unique to Just Tik Tok

Wednesday, December 14th, 2022 -- 11:00 AM

(By Rob Mentzer, Wisconsin Public Radio) Security risks of the social media video-sharing site TikTok recently highlighted by congressional Republicans are real, but they're not unique to the Chinese-owned app, cybersecurity experts said.

According to Rob Mentzer with Wisconsin Public Radio, that's because any time a user grants a smartphone app the ability to access their location, contacts, camera or microphone, they're opening up a potential avenue that can be exploited by hacking or phishing schemes.

In extreme cases, that could mean a hacker could access a device's camera or microphone functions without the user's knowledge or use GPS data to track the user's location.

What makes TikTok different is that its parent company, ByteDance, is Chinese, and therefore susceptible to influence or outright control by China's authoritarian government.

Last month, FBI director Christopher Wray said the app's mass adoption was a national security concern, and security negotiations are ongoing between the company and the Biden administration.

"Everything (TikTok) has might be in the hands of the Chinese government," said Khaled Sabha, a cybersecurity lecturer at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. "The Chinese government might ask TikTok ... or maybe force them to share users' information."

That concern prompted Wisconsin's Republican congressional delegation last week to send a letter to Democratic Gov. Tony Evers calling for the governor to ban the app from state-owned devices.

Several states have already done so, including Maryland, whose governor announced the move last week. Cybersecurity experts told Wisconsin Public Radio the state of Wisconsin and any individual user should consider potential risks from using social media.

But they stopped short of endorsing a ban on TikTok, saying its security risks are mostly the same risks that come from simply carrying a smartphone. In their letter, GOP legislators called the app a "surveillance tool" that "tracks cellphone users’ data, including user location data and users’ keystrokes, even when not even using the app."

That's because hackers or scammers can exploit security loopholes or trick users into sharing their data through phishing schemes. The large amounts of user data collected and stored by social media companies may also be vulnerable to abuse, either by the companies themselves or by hackers who target their databases.

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