AUSTN (WBAP/KLIF) – Texas Governor Greg Abbott, on Monday, announced a statewide model security plan for Texas state agencies to address potential vulnerabilities presented by the use of TikTok and other software on personal and state-issued devices.
In December of last year, Governor Abbott directed state agency leaders to immediately ban employees from downloading or using TikTok on any government-issued devices. Similar moved were made by other local and state governments, as well as some universities, over privacy concerns stemming from the Chinese company ByteDance, which owns the app.
Following the directive, the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas Department of Information Resources developed the model plan to guide state agencies on managing personal and state-issued devices used to conduct state business. Each state agency will have until February 15, 2023 to implement its own policy to enforce this statewide plan.
“The security risks associated with the use of TikTok on devices used to conduct the important business of our state must not be underestimated or ignored,” said Governor Abbott. “Owned by a Chinese company that employs Chinese Communist Party members, TikTok harvests significant amounts of data from a user’s device, including details about a user’s internet activity. Other prohibited technologies listed in the statewide model plan also produce a similar threat to the security of Texans. It is critical that state agencies and employees are protected from the vulnerabilities presented by the use of this app and other prohibited technologies as they work on behalf of their fellow Texans. I thank the Texas Department of Public Safety and Texas Department of Information Resources for their hard work helping safeguard the state’s sensitive information and critical infrastructure from potential threats posed by hostile foreign actors.”
The model plan outlines objectives for each agency, to include banning and preventing the download or use of TikTok and prohibited technologies on any state-issued device identified in the statewide plan. It also prohibits employees or contractors from conducting state business on prohibited technology-enabled personal devices. In addition, agencies are called to identify sensitive locations, meetings, or personnel within an agency that could be exposed to prohibited technology-enabled personal devices. Agency leaders are also directed to implement network-based restrictions to prevent the use of prohibited technologies on agency networks by any device. Lastly, they’re instructed to work with information security professionals to continuously update the list of prohibited technologies.
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