The European Commission announced on Thursday that it has decided to suspend the use of the TikTok application on its staff’s professional devices, aiming to protect the community driver from cybersecurity threats.
The decision was made by the Institutional Board of Directors of the Commission and includes mobile devices in the institution in addition to the professional devices of the community administrator’s staff.
Employees must remove the application from their professional devices by March 15.a spokesman said today.
“This measure aims to protect the Commission against cyber threats and actions that could be exploited for cyber-attacks on the Commission’s business environment. The evolution of the security of other social media platforms will also be under constant review,” announces Brussels.
According to the Commission, which refuses to give in to pressure from the United States to ban this Chinese social networking platform, “this measure is in line with the Commission’s strict internal cybersecurity policy on the use of mobile devices for work-related communications” and “complements the advice that the Commission has been giving its staff for some time to adopt best practices in using social media platforms and monitor cyberspace in their day-to-day work”.
“The Commission is committed to ensuring that its staff are properly protected against the increase in cyber threats and computer incidents. It is therefore up to us to respond to potential cyber alerts as quickly as possible,” concludes the community executive. that “this suspension is the result of an internal institutional decision strictly limited to the use of devices registered with the Commission’s services”.
TikTok considers “wrong” decision to ban application from professional devices
The social network TikTok today expressed its disappointment at Brussels’ decision to suspend the use of the application on its staff’s professional devices, deeming it “wrong and based on fundamental misconceptions”.
“We are disappointed with this decision, which we consider wrong and based on fundamental misconceptions” and “we have contacted the European Commission to clarify the situation and explain how we protect the data of the 125 million people in the European Union who use TikTok every month.” said the spokesperson for that social network in a statement.
“We are constantly improving our approach to data security, including setting up three data centers in Europe to store user data locally, further reducing employee access to data and minimizing data flows outside Europe.”
The decision was made by the Institutional Board of Directors of the Commission and includes mobile devices in the institution in addition to the professional devices of the community administrator’s staff.
Source: DN
