A number of serious security flaws are alleged to exist in Walmart’s Chinese network, and the retailer was ordered to fix them immediately.
Walmart has been told to fix these 19 vulnerabilities immediately, with police in Shenzhen, southern China, alerting Walmart to these alleged “loopholes” and criticizing Walmart for not responding in a timely manner.
Techradar reports that China’s market regulator confirmed the authenticity of the claims.
Nevertheless, both sides have been silent since, so there is no information on whether these “vulnerabilities” can be exploited to distribute malware.
A Display of Force
Reuters reports that Chinese authorities are using talk of vulnerabilities as a way to undermine Walmart’s relationship after Sam’s Club, Walmart’s members-only warehouse, was accused of removing Xinjiang-sourced products from its apps and stores earlier this month.
Meanwhile, in recent years, Xinjiang has become a spotlight for reports of abuse against minorities in China, mostly Uyghurs and other Muslims.
Chinese officials deny such allegations from Reuters, but criticize Sam’s Club as “stupid and short-sighted”.
As for the warehouse arm of Walmart, it called the removal of the products a “misunderstanding”, claiming it wasn’t intentional.
Nearly all American tech giants, including Facebook, Google, and YouTube, are banned in the Far East.
In contrast, the US often accuses China of sponsoring cyber-attacks against large corporations, non-profits, and government institutions in the US, which are designed to steal data and spy on the US.
These accusations are flatly denied by China.
Many of China’s largest technology companies, including ZTE, Huawei, Xiaomi, were blocked from transacting with US companies during the Trump administration.
Due to this, Huawei, a Chinese-owned company, developed its own operating system, called HarmonyOS, or HongmengOS, rather than continuing to use Android.
Over 120 million HarmonyOS devices were running as of October 2021.
Additionally, China imposes a strict set of regulations on domestic internet traffic, called the Great Firewall of China.