Hawley Considers TikTok Data Collection National Security Threat

TikTok is collecting enormous amounts of data (see 1911040034), which the Chinese government can legally access through parent company ByteDance, posing a major national security threat, Senate Crime and Terrorism Subcommittee Chairman Josh Hawley, R-Mo., told reporters Tuesday.

His comments followed a hearing in which witnesses warned that TikTok, which declined to testify, is a legitimate competitive threat to American social media companies like Facebook and Twitter. Hawley suggested the Senate Judiciary Committee could later subpoena testimony from TikTok. He also noted the production chain for Apple, which also declined to testify, is in China. That means the Chinese government and military have the opportunity to study the platform and projects and do reverse engineering, Hawley said.

Hawley told reporters TikTok sent a letter to the committee Tuesday, claiming it doesn’t take direction from the Chinese government. He also noted during the hearing that the company claims it stores its data in the U.S. and Singapore. Heritage Foundation Senior Research Fellow-Technology Klon Kitchen told the panel that companies like ByteDance operating in China must provide unfettered digital access to the government. The laws on TikTok’s data apply to the parent company, testified Center for a New American Security Technology and National Security Program Fellow Kara Frederick.

Congress needs to move cybersecurity and data security legislation, said ranking member Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., during the hearing, emphasizing the importance of getting the administration energized about cybersecurity legislation.

The Trump and Obama administrations have shown a lack of resolve in addressing malicious cyber activity, which is largely consequence free, testified Center for Strategic and International Studies Deputy Director and Fellow-Technology Policy William Carter. Only 0.3 percent of reported cyberattacks result in an arrest, and it’s a massively underreported crime, he said.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s cybersecurity framework is a very useful tool, testified Microsoft Corporate Vice President-Consumer Security and Trust Tim Burt. He said companies are increasingly adopting it. He noted, however, it’s very complex and hard to implement without a big IT staff.

There’s always talk of public and private partnerships, but it’s never fully realized, Burt said. DOJ and the FBI need the right incentives to reduce botnets and attack botnets, even when they can’t get handcuffs on the perpetrators, he said. He noted Microsoft has taken down 17 botnets, rescuing nearly 500 million devices from criminal networks. He said Russia, China, Iran and North Korea are looking to destroy democracy.