Delaware recently banned TikTok from state-owned devices due to cybersecurity concerns, but are those concerns valid?
Delaware joined the federal government and many other states in banning TikTok from its devices and networks, a ban that includes all Delaware schools.
The state is worried about cybersecurity risks surrounding the app’s Chinese parent company, including the Chinese government being able to obtain data from Delaware agencies or employees through TikTok.
UD professor John D’Arcy researches cybersecurity and cyber-risk management. He says that risk is heightened by the app’s ability to access information from other apps – more than Facebook or Twitter – and potentially act as a vector to obtain information and user activity like keystroke behavior, location data, and biometric data. Data that could lead to a breach.
"There might be sensitive information on one employee's device, and if TikTok becomes sort of the vector - the conduit - into that device and say it's a sensitive password or a password to a critical system that contains very sensitive information. Just having one user be the weak link so to speak is problematic," said D’Arcy.
Despite those concerns, D’Arcy doesn’t see any possibility of TikTok being completely banned in the U.S because of all of its users.
"It's probably not realistic to assume that we're just going to wipe out TikTok in the United States and relieve all those types of privacy and cybersecurity concerns," said D’Arcy.
D’Arcy adds there are legitimate cybersecurity concerns between the U.S. and China with TikTok being owned by a Chinese company.
