Canada bans WeChat and Kaspersky for government employees

The chairman of the Treasury Board of Canada, Anita Anand, announced on October 30, 2023, that her government would ban employees from using the WeChat and Kaspersky apps. Federal CIO Catherine Luelo, believes that the Chinese social media and Russian antivirus apps indeed “pose an unacceptable threat to privacy and security.”

“The data retrieval methods of the WeChat and Kaspersly apps give them considerable access to a mobile device’s contents,” explains Anita Anand in a press release. “Starting from October 30, 2023, the WeChat and Kaspersky application suites will be deleted from government mobile devices. Moreover, their users will be unable to download them from now on,” she explained.

The chairman of the Treasury Board nonetheless assured there was currently no indication that these apps had enabled the theft of personal data. The rest of Canada’s population can still use them. The government is however asking that users read the Communications Security Establishment’s recommendations to assess which dangers they are exposed to.