China TECNO floods African smartphone market with a spy program.
TECNO is at the center of a global scandal. The Chinese company is accused of selling smartphones with preinstalled spyware (Triada malware). The complaint comes from the Secure-D anti-fraud platform, which has identified 19.2 million TECNO smartphones in Africa with the Triada malware installed. The most affected countries are Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana and South Africa. The scandal is linked to the economic war between the United States and China. And 5G technology, the new frontier of the cold war USA CHINA
The African market represents a real boon for mobile and telecom companies. The market potential offers mind-boggling figures. Out of a total population of 1.216 billion people, 25 million Africans have enough income to buy state-of-the-art smartphones: Huawei, Samsung, Apple, costing no less than 500 euros. 150 million Africans can access the intermediate quality ranges of Smartphones costing between 200 and 350 euros. 820 million Africans manage to access economic Smartphones (120 to 80 euros). 205 million Africans do not have enough income to buy Smartphones and have to manage communications with older generation mobile phones. Only 16 million Africans have no at all possibility to buy any kind of mobile phones. While the upper classes change their Smartphone every 6 to 12 months, the majority of potential customers buy a new mobile phone after 2 or 3 years. Only 24 million Africans buy a new mobile phone after 5 years.
Telecom companies installed in Africa (Arab, European and African) obtain more profits than in Europe and the Middle East, targeting the lower middle income bracket. A user of 1.025 billion people who consume from 8 to 14 euros of telephone top-ups each month. In all African countries you can buy phone top-ups worth 30 euro cents. About 200 million users access the Internet via smartphones even though the average download speed per user is seven times slower than industrialized countries.
The smartphone companies that dominate the African market are all Asian: Samsung (South Korea), Huawei, TECNO and ZTE (China). The latter two companies focused on the low and medium-low ranges. While the products offered by ZTE are lacking in quality, those offered by TECNO have an excellent balance between quality and price. With 80 or 120 euros on they can buy excellent Tecno smartphones. The best-selling models are TECNO Pop 4 Pro, TECNO Spark 5 and TECNO Camon 15 Air.
These days the TECNO is at the center of a worldwide scandal. It is accused of selling Smartphones with pre-installed spy software (Triada malware). The complaint comes from the Secure-D anti-fraud platform, which has identified 19.2 million TECNO smartphones in Africa in which the Triada malware is installed. The countries most affected are Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana and South Africa. TECNO would insert the spy software through the collaboration of the Chinese company Tranission Holdings which produces the Android devices that dominate the African smartphone market.
Tranission, based in Shenzhen (the modern southeast metropolis connecting Hong Kong to mainland China) has been listed on the Chinese version of the Nasdaq since last year. Tranission has deliberately ignored its internal market to focus almost exclusively on Africa. It sells phones that are cheaper than competitors like Samsung and Apple and Huawei under the TECNO Mobile brand and at 20% lower prices than the same models sold in Asia, the Middle East and Europe.
Triada malware installs a code known as xHelper on compromised devices, automatically enrolling users without their knowledge for services that consume prepaid airtime — the only way to pay for digital products in many developing countries. At the same time, all user data is diverted to the TECNO Mobile headquarters in China. The collection of an avalanche of data on religious, political, sexual orientations, and on consumption preferences are then resold to multinationals, religious sects, governments.
Triada — xHelper would have been made available to brutal African dictatorial governments including the racial regime that controls Burundi. Through spy software, these governments would take control of smartphones, managing to identify their opponents. The hundreds of ad personam political assassinations that the Burundian regime has carried out since 2015 would have been possible thanks to the possibility of individual espionage offered by Tecno and Tranission, according to sources from the Burundian opposition in exile.
The xHelper Trojan persists during reboots, app removals, and even factory resets, making it extremely difficult to delete even for experienced professionals and nearly impossible for the average mobile user. “The fact that the malware arrives pre-installed on phones that are bought by millions of typically low-income African families offers TECNO an unprecedented source of profits from the resale of data stolen with Triada. It also offers an incredible advantage to Chinese companies they may know. in the smallest details the orientations of the medium-low consumers and their financial possibilities to buy cheap Smartphones. These consumers represent 84% of potential customers in Africa. This colossal business takes advantage of the most vulnerable, ”says Secure-D CEO Geoffrey Cleaves. The American media immediately seized the opportunity by widely disseminating the investigations carried out by Secure-D. A choice closely linked to the economic war between the United States and China.
TECNO immediately reacted by stating that it was aware of the spy software but that it had long since solved the problem by providing customers with a free downloadable software online to eliminate Triada. In turn, the Chinese firm Transsion has accused an unidentified seller in the supply chain process. This Mister X would have installed the XHelper components without the knowledge of Transsion and TECNO after purchasing the products to resell them on the African market. It would be Mister X and not the two Chinese multinationals to enjoy the profits generated by the automatic registration to services that consume telephone credits and from the collection of personal data and immediately resold with a weight of gold.
TECNO, through a press release, assures that since 2016 measures have been taken to prevent the posthumous installation of spy software. “We have always attached great importance to consumer data protection and product safety. Since 2016 every single software installed on every device undergoes a series of rigorous security checks and security updates are periodically sent to mobile users in the form free “, says TECNO.
The Triada malware scandal spying on Africa comes at a delicate moment in the Telecom and Smartphone sector. Since 2018, Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE have been accused by Australia, Great Britain and the United States of installing spy devices similar to TECNO ‘s malware in their smartphones. These English-speaking governments advise their citizens to stop using Huawei and ZTE products due to security concerns. They have also harmed Huawei by applying high customs tariffs that do not make Smartphones competitive on the domestic market or even by prohibiting the import of Huawei products and technology.
US intelligence leaders urge Americans to stop buying Huawei and ZTE products. In Europe, the alleged spying activities of the two Chinese companies were denounced by Dusan Navratil, director of the Czech National Cyber and Information Security Agency (NCISA), stating in December 2018 that “Chinese laws require private companies residing in China to cooperate with the intelligence services, therefore, introducing them into key state systems could pose a threat. “
Navratil paid dearly for his warning. Prime Minister Andej Babis and President Milos Zeman fired him and had him arrested for espionage. According to various European geo-political experts, Navratil’s misfortunes originated from an explicit request from Beijing in order to defend the interests of its multinational in the Eastern European country. Prime Minister Adrej Babis conducts a pro-Chinese policy. While there is no evidence of the explicit Chinese request, the Czech president during a visit to Huawei’s headquarters in China stated that Navratil’s allegations “were not supported by evidence”. Upon returning from his official visit, President Zeman ordered the arrest of the former head of NCISA.
Huawei now focuses on the globalization of the 5G network. An ambitious business plan that is part of the government plan of the “New Silk Road”, called One Belt On Road — OBOR, which provides for the strengthening of the globalization process through a planetary network of road, ship, air and high-speed internet connections technology. A plan that sees Africa and South America as the main players and some European countries as Trojan horses, among them the Czech Republic.
According to the United States, the OBOR would not represent a contribution to human development but a diabolical plan of the Red Dragon to secure the planetary economic and logistic dominance. According to the American intelligence services, by focusing on the 5G connection, Huawei would have received the order from the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party to come into possession of the crucial sensitive data of all countries that will accept its technology, threatening national security. 5G technology is the new frontier of the USA CHINA cold war, as well as being the victim of a myriad of conspiracy theories that portray this disease-carrying and social control technology. In the nebulous world of conspiracy theorists, 5G technology has also been accused of having triggered the Covid19 pandemic.
Despite these fakenews that have created strong resistance in tens of thousands of people especially in Europe 5G technology seems destined to revolutionize the previously known concept of telephone communications and internet connection, bringing great benefits in various productive and social sectors (including education and telemedicine). Precisely for this reason, 5G is at the center of a fierce world economic war. Huawei’s competitors are varied, powerful, all Western or pro-Western: American Holding: Dell EMC, Hewlett Packard Enterprise / Aruba, European ones: Ericsson, Nokya and South Korean Samsung.
The Covid19 pandemic has been cleverly used to discredit Chinese 5G multinationals by accusing their government of creating the virus in the laboratory. Accusation not launched by the usual conspirators but officially by the American government. An accusation lacking in evidence. The only fact is the Chinese government’s delay in communicating the outbreak of the pandemic in its country. Pragmatic Zhōngguó Gòngchǎndǎng (Communist Party of China) also used the pandemic to promote “Made in China” 5G technology. Beijing has invested 1.2 billion dollars in health aid to contain the Covid19 pandemic by concentrating them in African, Asian and European countries that Huawei has entered into commercial negotiations for the use of 5G technology.
Canada, Germany and Italy are the first Western countries to request commercial and technical collaboration with Huawei for the diffusion of the 5G network on the national territory, despite the fact that US President Donald Trump advises against doing so. Various opposition parties and some journalists from these countries warn of the danger that through Huawei China will seize sensitive government data, especially those relating to the health and defense sectors. The national security risks associated with collaborations with Chinese multinationals cannot be ruled out a priori. The TECNO spy malware scandal in Africa proves this. Since it is a matter of national security, the Canadian, Italian and German governments will certainly carefully evaluate the collaboration with Huawei and will identify technical measures to prevent this risk, should commercial agreements be signed.
