VIDEO | Chinese spying on Jamaicans, says Tapia - Not true, says Digicel
Published:Sunday | January 3, 2021 | 12:16 AMLivern Barrett - Senior Staff Reporter
Chinese operatives are eavesdropping on mobile telephone calls being made by Jamaicans on the Digicel network, the departing top American diplomat here has alleged, opening the door for speculation on what Jamaican authorities may know.
But the assertion has been shot down by Digicel, which has sought to assure Jamaicans that its network is safe from outside interference.
The stunning claim by Donald Tapia, United States (US) ambassador to Jamaica, is potentially the most damaging to come from the Donald Trump administration in its repeated warning to Jamaica over its relations with China.
Tapia’s allegation comes weeks after a report by a British newspaper suggested that China may have used “mobile phone networks in the Caribbean to surveil US mobile phone subscribers as part of its espionage campaign against Americans”.
The supposed attacks appeared to allow China to target, track and intercept phone communications of US subscribers, The Guardian reported, citing analysis conducted by US-based mobile network security expert, Gary Miller.
Tapia charged, during an exclusive interview with The Sunday Gleaner last week, that almost eight months after he took office in September 2019, then chief executive officer (CEO) at Digicel, Allison Cole-Philbert, admitted that the telecoms firm was aware that the Chinese were listening in on his mobile calls.
And, without hesitation, he answered “yes” when asked if he believes that cell phone calls made by Jamaicans are being intercepted by Chinese and other interests.
This is being facilitated through Digicel’s use of Chinese-made Huawei technology across its network, according to the American emissary, who, in shedding diplomatic tact last year, labelled China “a dragon with two heads”.
“Once again, here we go. I am stepping into it again. I said to the CEO of Digicel, ‘the Chinese are listening to all the mobile conversations that I have in Jamaica’,” he claimed, recounting a conversation with the telecoms boss.
“Her answer was ‘we know’. I thought she would deny it,” he added.
Cole-Philbert became the first female to lead Digicel’s Jamaican operation when she was appointed CEO in August 2019. She demitted office last October.
TAPIA MET WITH DIGICEL EXECUTIVES
Digicel acknowledged, in a statement to The Sunday Gleaner, that Tapia raised the issue of unauthorised activity by Chinese interests on its network during a face-to-face meeting with two senior executives on May 21 last year.
The names of the executives were not disclosed.
“While the Digicel executives listened while Ambassador Tapia aired his opinions and concerns on the matter, they did not respond to his comments, nor indeed did they enter into any discussion with the ambassador on the topic,” the statement said.
“To be clear, any suggestion to the contrary is categorically incorrect,” the telecoms firm insisted, noting that this was the only time that the two Digicel executives interacted with Ambassador Tapia in any way.
Seeking to avert any potential fallout from Tapia’s claim, the telecoms firm disclosed that no “Chinese equipment” is deployed in its core voice and data networks.
“Digicel’s vendors for this are Ericsson and Affirm. Likewise, none of Digicel’s vendors have access to customer data,” the company said, adding that the allegations against the Chinese are unfounded.
The Chinese Embassy declined to comment for this story.
However, it has previously criticised Tapia for similar statements, charging that they were “filled with Cold War mentality and hegemonistic mindset, which fully expose the consistent US practice of arbitrarily interfering in other countries’ domestic and foreign policies and forcing small and medium-sized countries to choose sides”.
The Chinese Embassy noted, also, that Huawei has been operating in Jamaica for over a decade and that the localised company had a track record of high-quality products, solutions, as well as cybersecurity.
FLOW, the other provider of telecommunications services in Jamaica and the Caribbean, also moved to shut down concerns arising from the report in The Guardian.
“Across all the markets where FLOW operates, we continuously monitor our networks and have robust security policies and protocols in place to protect the data of our customers,” the company said in response to questions from this newspaper.
“We take our commitment to data protection seriously and are carefully reviewing the information in The Guardian article.”
The United States believes Huawei, founded by a Chinese army officer, could be used by China for spying, via its 5G equipment. 5G is the next generation of mobile Internet connection and offers much faster data download and upload speeds.
FAR-REACHING IMPLICATIONS
An unsafe telecommunications network, Tapia cautioned, would have far-reaching implications for Jamaica’s national security as well as key industries, including the financial and tourism sectors.
As an example, he said Jamaican banks would be cut off from their US counterparts and intelligence-sharing initiatives between Jamaica and the US would cease “if you can’t transmit data over a clean line”.
“We are supplying intelligence to the JDF [Jamaica Defence Force] and other law enforcement [partners in Jamaica] … you talk about crime here in Jamaica, all of that [intelligence sharing] would actually stop,” said Tapia, who is set to return to the US on Friday before officially demitting office on January 12.
“That’s something you don’t want to bring out to the general public … you don’t want the ‘what could happen’ out there because it would spook me and you do not want to do that to the Jamaican people. But at the same time, you need to see what the consequences could be.”
There was no response from the Jamaican Government to Tapia’s assertions, as calls and messages to Technology Minister Daryl Vaz as well as questions sent to the Office of the Prime Minister last week went unanswered.
What Tapia did beyond speaking with Digicel representatives is not clear and the US Embassy in Kingston has declined further comment on the matter.
In the area of tourism, Tapia cautioned that visitors would not want to risk using their credit cards in a destination where their personal data could be compromised.
“If you couldn’t use your credit card to Jamaica, but you could use it to The Bahamas, what country you gonna go to?” the departing ambassador questioned.