40% Increase Since Official Bans

Chinese devices are suspected of administering cyber espionage due to concerns over potential backdoors, supply chain vulnerabilities, and the risk of tampering. 

State-sponsored cyber threats, such as viral memes, are becoming more frequent.

Chinese devices have raised concerns about spying because of their supply chain risks and potential backdoors.

The Forescout before a ban revealed more than 2000 vulnerable Chinese in the US government networks.

Research is ongoing to determine the actual extent of the problem due to these being used in many enterprises.

300,000 Chinese Devices In US

Chinese-manufactured devices are being checked for cybersecurity vulnerabilities in the US shipping, automotive, and energy storage sectors with concerns over potential espionage. 

Some countries have banned companies such as Huawei and Hikvision, but Forescout has found that Chinese IoT devices are flooding enterprise networks in America where about 7.5 million were identified by February 2024 compared to 6.7 million for the previous year. 

Also, within this period, the UK had a doubling effect, increasing the device population to 500k, demonstrating its global stretch of this problem as well.

In February 2024, nearly 300,000 devices from 473 Chinese manufacturers comprised 3.8% of all devices in US networks, growing 41% from 2.7% a year prior. The UK saw Chinese devices double to 20,000 (4%) over the same period. 

Globally, the percentage of Chinese devices in Canadian education ranged from 2.1% to 9.5% in Singaporean tech sectors.

While IT devices still dominate at 88%, IoT devices are increasing, now 9% in the US and 20% in the UK. 

Top device types include computers, mobile devices, cameras, networking gear, access control systems and industrial equipment.

Some nations, like Australia, saw 37% growth, while others, like Germany, decreased 25% year-over-year.

While many of the Chinese-manufactured devices come from well-known brands, some are from lesser-known original design manufacturers (ODMs) like Wistron, Advantech, and Inventec. 

These Taiwan-based companies have manufacturing facilities in China registered under Chinese OUIs, and it is these Chinese-registered OUIs that are counted in this research, representing devices produced at their China facilities. 

Though headquartered elsewhere, their Chinese-made devices contribute to the expansion being tracked.

Alarmingly, critical infrastructure sectors like healthcare (33% of devices), manufacturing (32%), and government (9%) are among the top users of Chinese-manufactured devices in the US. 

Even more worrying is the rapid year-over-year growth in some of these industries – manufacturing more than doubled, healthcare grew 47%, financial services by 40%, and government by 30%. 

These increases amplify espionage and disruption risks in sectors where such threats are most concerning.

IP cameras and surveillance equipment from Honeywell’s China facility constitute 11.5% of Chinese-manufactured devices, the most common in the critical government sector.

Is Your Network Under Attack? - Read CISO’s Guide to Avoiding the Next Breach - Download Free Guide